Once in a Lifetime
by Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay
Summary: The Jedi and others live a blissful existence. Then things start to happen, weird things. They now know that someone time traveled. The question is who.
1. Captain Needa?

Once in a lifetime

Inspired by a Eureka episode

Disclaimer: Unless you have the I.Q of a rabbit (which I know you don't) I don't own Star Wars.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker stood looking out at Coruscant. _Is it worth it? Should I? I should go there. I _need_ to go there! I-

* * *

  
_

22 years later

Luke Skywalker stared at the ceiling. It was his turn to do patrol and he wasn't looking forward to it.

"Come on Luke, if we don't report to the general we both will be in trouble." "Who let you in?" "I let myself in." Luke threw his pillow at Leia.

The pillow stopped in mid-air.

"Come on big brother, today is our last day on this ice ball. We will never see it again." Leia said encouragingly.

Luke sighed.

"Fine, I'll get up."

* * *

Anakin Skywalker walked with Obi-Wan down the corridors of the _Defender._ "I will be glad to return to Coruscant. No more chasing pirates that might not exist." Anakin said as they headed toward the bridge. "Anakin three settlements were attacked, bombed out for existence, someone is killing innocent civilians and it's our job to find them.

The beeping of Obi-Wan's comlink stopped the conversation. "Kenobi," "Sir, it's the captain, he's dead." Anakin and Obi-Wan exchanged a glance. "Where commander?" "The bridge, please hurry."

Five minutes later Anakin knelt beside the dead captain. "He appears to have been strangled. Or something similar." Anakin said as he took off his cloak. "You say that you heard something hit the deck and when you looked the captain was lieing there dead?" Obi-Wan asked a technician. "She justed nodded.

Anakin sighed as he stood. "He was a great captain. He will be sorely missed by the fleet." "I'll tell his wife." the Admiral said. "I know her family personally." Anakin nodded.

"There is no sign of trauma. And-"

"What happened? I heard that an officer dropped dead on the bridge."

Anakin, Obi-Wan, the admiral and the whole bridge turned to the source of the voice. And their jaws dropped.

Anakin stared at the man for a moment. "Captain?" He asked curiously.

"Yes Master Jedi?" the dead Captain Lorth Needa, asked

* * *

Confused? good. Ideas?

R/R!


	2. Arguements, crashes and beacons

n the Hanger Bay of the _Dauntless . . ._

Leia Skywalker swung her flight helmet back and forth.

"I really miss dad's old Interceptor. It handled better than a X-Wing." "Too bad it was lost when that freak Ion storm appeared out of nowhere three months back." Luke sighed, "I preferred it as well Leia, but wishful thinking won't bring it back."

"Maybe these pirates will let Han and I have a decent honeymoon." Leia said. "If these raids don't stop you might miss your own wedding." Luke commented.

Leia laughed, a rare sound after the destruction of the settlement on the fourth moon of the gas giant Yavin. Leia had lost her master Jera Carden and best friend Kari Moondancer to that attack.

_Leia needs to stop blaming herself for Kari's death. It wasn't her fault that she broke her legs and left arm in a fall._

"If you don't want me to blame myself for Kari's death stop blaming yourself for Biggs's death. At least Kari dying was my fault, I shouldn't have followed Waxler down that turbo-lift. You weren't even in the same sector of space when Biggs's died and you weren't responsible for him being there in the first place." She snapped.

"I lost my Master that day and a very good friend. If I'd been there I could've done something!" "You would've died." Luke said. "At least Kari would be alive. Just like if you had been with Admiral Ackbar Biggs would have made it!"

The Skywalker twins were now shouting at each other.

The whole hanger stopped to watch it.

"Should I called their father, and let him deal with them?" Commander Wedge Antillies asked. "No, let them get through it on their own. Besides, if Master Skywalker is unhappy, nobody's happy." Captain Piett said.

"It's called 'Survivor's Guilt' when you lived and someone, usually a friend, doesn't make." Piett explained.

"So all the shouting is all about guilt?" a pilot asked. "It would seem so" Piett answered.

"If you think that-"

A deafening crashing noise was followed by the blare klazons interrupted the argument.

Everyone ran to the site of the accident. A X-Wing had collide with an Interceptor.

The X-Wing pilot pushed herself out of the wreckage. "It just appeared out of thin air." She said as a medical team took her away.

"I recognize this Interceptor, it's dad's." Leia exclaimed. "That impossible Leia, there wasn't enough to salvage it." Luke shot back. "I'd know that fighter anywhere," Leia retorted as she approached the wreck.

Leia had to use the Force to open the badly damaged canopy. The metal shrieked in protest but yielded.

Finally the canopy opened to reveal the cockpit.

Luke grimaced. The controls were damaged beyond repair. _If it was dad's like Leia insists there'll be no way to tell._

"It is dad's, I swear Luke." Leia insisted.

"I don't think it-" Luke stopped when something caught his eye. Luke reached down and retrieved it.

"What is it?" Leia asked.

Luke showed her.

Leia's jaw dropped when Luke showed her an old Jedi beacon


	3. Is This an Answer?

"Where did that come from? They don't make them like that anymore." Leia said.

Luke slowly turned the homing beacon around studying all the aspects of it. "I don't recognize the make but it is at least Clone War era." He told her.

"What do we do?" Leia asked.

"Let's called dad and Obi-Wan they might know." Luke responded. Leia nodded slowly.

_On the Defender . . ._

"Yes, is there a problem?" Captain Needa asked, his eyes on the shrouded form on the deck.

Anakin felt light headed, as if he had forgotten how to breathe. _This is impossible! He is dead! Isn't he?_

"No, there is no problem," Obi-Wan said, "beside the fact that a crew member just died."

Two medics arrived and removed the body from the bridge.

Captain Needa glanced around the bridge trying to figure out what just happened. Master Kenobi looked puzzled, Master Skywalker looked as if he was going to be ill and the bridge crew looked as if they were seeing a ghost.

"Master Skywalker are you well?" he asked, concerned, it wouldn't do to have one of the Jedi sick in anyway. "I'm fine, thank you for asking." Anakin said, lowering himself into a chair.

"Master Skywalker," a comm technician called. "You have a call from the _Dauntless_, it's your children."

Anakin groaned. _If Luke and Leia are arguing again I'll have them both locked in the Detention Block!_ He promised himself silently.

"I'll take it in my quarters." he said forcing his emotionally drained body out of the chair.

"Maybe you should take it right here." Needa said in a concerned voice. "it's alright, I'll be right back." Anakin said as he left the bridge.

_On Coruscant . . ._

Padme Amidala Skywalker sighed. The past five years had been littered with odd occurrences. Settlements were attacked but the attackers were unknown. Bodies appeared out of thin air all of them had been strangled. The clincher was that there were no marks on the victims throats or damage to the skin, except for what appeared to be self inflicted. Debris from ships floated in space.

The attacks and the ship debris were easy to explain: Pirates. The only thing that couldn't be explained were the bodies.

It was all infuriating. Every time they thought they might have an answer for the dead bodies another one would somehow show up in an unlikely place.

No, unlikely wasn't quite the right word. Six of the five bodies that had been found, so far, had been on Space ships. The bodies didn't belong to crewmembers and no one that the few members of the Team had questioned knew who they were.

"This is disturbing," Master Mace Windu said. "What is disturbing?" Mon Mothma asked. "We just received a report on a new body. However unlike the others the body is that of a crewmember and, the is the interesting part, after the covered his body he walked onto the bridge."

There was silence.

"I beg your pardon, but did you just say that after they covered his body he walked onto the Bridge healthy and whole?"

"You mean that that there was two of him?"

"His body was dead on the deck of the bridge dead from strangulation. Then he walks onto the bridge saying that he heard that an officer was dead."

Padme glanced and Mon and found Mon looking at her.

"They are sure that it was him dead on the deck?" Mon asked. "They are medically positive that it is him." Mace responded.

"Are there any theories of what killed them?" Bail asked. Mace looked uncomfortable. "It has recently been suggested that they were all strangled with the Force."

Everyone shifted in their seats at the thought.

"Are you suggesting that a dark Force user is responsible?" Padme asked slowly. "Before this in incident I would have said that it was a very likely possibility." Mace answered.

They all turned to Master Yoda who just sat in his seat with a thoughtful expression.

The beep of an incoming call shook them from their frightened thoughts.

Mace reached out and activated the transmitter.

A hologram of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-wan Kenobi and the Skywalker twins appeared.

"We're sorry to interrupt your meeting but Anakin thought that it was important." Obi-Wan said. "Earlier today about the time that a body of Captain Lorth Needa appeared on the bridge of the _Defender_ an old Jedi Interceptor suddenly appeared in the _Dauntless_'s hanger and collided with an X-Wing. The odd thing is that the Interceptor was the same one that was lost to an Ion storm." "Anakin's," Padme put in. "Yes, however Anakin's old beacon was on the floor. It had been programmed to give his position on Coruscant." "However the last place in the navicomputer was Mustafar." Anakin said.

"Let me get this straight," Bail began, "The Interceptor that crashed in the hanger had been lost in an Ion storm?" "I barely ejected in time." Leia supplied. "Nothing worth salvaging after it collided with that asteroid." Luke added.

"And inside was Master Skywalker's old homing beacon?" The holograms nodded. "The said beacon was saying that Master Skywalker was on Coruscant _but_ the last concordances were for the hellish world of Mustafar?"

"Yes and the fighter had even landed on the planet."

"Disturbing this is," Yoda said softly.

"First dead officer and crashed fighter, then living officer and puzzle of beacon."

"Master Yoda, could this be the work of a Dark Jedi?" Luke asked.

Yoda turned away from everyone and closed his eyes.

"Coming an answer is," he finally answered.

Mon started to open her mouth when someone chimed at the door.

"Come," Mace called.

The door slid open to reveal a 2-1B holding a box meant for the transportation of organic tissues.

Padme felt her blood freeze in her veins.

"These were found in the Republic Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Center. They do not belong to any patient ever treated there." The 2-1B said as it set the box down on the table.

"What's inside?" Padme asked slowly even though she had a feeling that she alreay knew what the box contained.

"It contains three human bones as well as some badly damaged human organs." A security officer replied. "I was told to escort the droid here."

"Master Yoda, if you think that this is an answer I think that is a new question." Padme whispered as she stared at the box.


	4. Another mystery and more questions

"No, an answer the organs have, another matter it is whether we understand." Yoda answered. "Come with us you will to the Jedi Temple's Halls of Healing and there we'll find the identity of our friend. Return to Coruscant quickly you should." Yoda told the Jedi participating through holograms. "We're done here as far as anyone's concerned." Obi-Wan replied. "The _Defender_ will be setting a course for Coruscant the moment the last of the scouts dock."

"And the _Dauntless_ will return the moment the salvage teams' return from the surface of Hoth." Luke stated.

"Have you found any survivors from the settlement?" Bail asked. "So far we haven't found the settlement; only a battlefield." leia answered. "A battlefield?" Mon echoed. "You mean that there's no sign of the settlement?" "None that we can find after combing different parts of Hoth for nearly six standard days. We found the battlefield yesterday." Luke explained. "There's doubt that there even was a settlement here. We only headed here because we felt a disturbance if the Force." Leia furthered explained.

"Rebellion." Anakin and Yoda said that the same time.

"Pirates that rebelled against a commander and they were wiped out because of it?" Padme asked. Anakin shrugged. "I asked the Force and the feeling that I got was rebellion." "Hm." Yoda added.

"Our scouts have returned Masters so we'll continue this conversation face to face." Obi-Wan reported. "May the Force be with you." Anakin and Obi-Wan said before their holos fizzed out of existence.

Luke and Leia bowed and their holos vanished as well.

_On the sixth planet of the Hoth system . . ._

Captain Maximillian Veers stood in the middle of a snow field dressed head to toe in cold weather gear. He was looking at the remains of what appeared to be the defensives of a settlement but something wasn't right, he could feel it.

Slowly he trudged through the snow looking at the shrapnel of what must have been a bloody battle. His teams orders were to see if the could find anything that would give an idea of who had attacked the settlement and why the settlement hadn't called for help.

"Sir, I found part of a very old scout craft and I mean old. Pre-Clone War." a lieutenant said as he approached a group of searchers.

"Get it ready for transportation to the _Dauntless_. They want us back on Coruscant ASAP." He ordered.

"_Captain,"_ a voice called over his commlink. "Veers," he responded. _"We found something sir." _"What is it?" _"We don't know sir. It appears to be an armored transport and attack vehicle of some type." This is it!_ Veers thought. "What''s your position?" he asked. _"A quarter of a mile from your current position, sir."_

Veers quickly climbed aboard a speeder bike a rocketed towards the direction of the mysterious transport.

When he arrived he whistled.

"Where in the stars is that?" he asked.

"Wish we could tell you sir, it's heavily armored and it appears as if it was heavily armed as well. The feet alone could crush ground troops." A technician reported. "And the legs long enough that they could easily step over defenses!" "Or crush them and the defenders flat." Another technician put in.

_Who would build such a thing? Where would they be able to build this and keep it a secret? Wouldn't even the Black Market have headr of these things? And if so why haven't our contacts said anything?_

"I've never seen anything like it." another technician muttered softly.

"Over the comm you said that it was a transport. The size of its body does suggest that it could have been used for the transportation of troops and maybe equipment." Veers asked. The techs hesitated. "We found bodies sir, or more truthfully parts of bodies."

"Bodies?" Veers asked after a pause. "Yes, someone cut a hole in the bottom and threw in a charge." The first technician informed him. "Load the remains into boxes so that they can be transported to the _Dauntless_ and prepare this monster for transportation as well."

Veers sighed as he watched the techs pick up the pieces of transport.

_Something's not right. This is a battlefield alright but what were they defending here? It's basically a mountain and a glacier. The only reason to fight here is that it's reasonably defensible._

The whine of the engines of the transport broke Veers out of his thoughts. "Alright people the transport's here. Are we ready?" Veers called to the techs. Are we ready?" "Yes sir," a tech called, "we're ready."

_I can't wait to return to Coruscant to exaim it with Master Skywalker and others._

_Coruscant five days later . . ._

Jedi Masters Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Shaya Thak and Yoda stood around a examining table with Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Padme Amidala Skywalker and Jedi Knights Luke and Leia Skywalker.

A medical droid slowly removed three human bones from the medical box on the table. "These two are the collar bones and this is the sternum of a human male about 1.85 meters tall and in his early twenties. There is little damage to them and at this moment there is no apparent reason why they would have been removed."

The droid reached again into the box and removed a tube like object. "An esophagus. As you can see there is damage to it. The man that this belonged to was exposed to fire, smoke and fumes." The droid set the esophagus on the table and comest in retrieving another organ. "The stomach shows the same signs of horrific damage the esophagus shows. It is empty except for some sort of liquid." The droid took a sample.

Padme swallowed bile back.

"Was the patient alive for this?" she asked. "Of course, why remove damaged organs from a dead patient?" the droid asked as it put the sample into a computer for analysis.

"The kidneys show extensive damage. The patient was laying on his stomach when he was burned. Although at this point I don't understand why they were trying to save his life at this point." The droid commented. "Why?" Mace asked. "If he was as badly burned as I believe he was it would have been kinder to let him die. Pump him full you pain killers, make him comfortable and as his family to come say 'good-bye'."

"Maybe he knew something that needed to be known." Leia suggested. "Again pain killers and no surgery. As I stated earlier he was a dead man. Even with surgery it most likely wouldn't prolong his life anyway a human would want to live."

The droid left the table to take organ samples to be tested.

"The droid is right young one." Shaya Thak said gently. "The damage of the organs shown to us so far indicates that this young man was burned from his feet up. Most likely from the damage to his kidneys his feet must have been completely burned away and a good part of his lower legs as well. If a Jedi came in like that we'd put them into a healing trance at first and see if the damage would heal and if not than we'd administer pain killers and leave their fate to the will of the Force. If he had information for us than we'd ask but we wouldn't prolong his suffering."

"There are no pain killers of any kind in the organs here." The medical droid reported. "What?!?" Everyone cried as one. "The patient wasn't given anything for the pain. The droids preforming the operation just cut him open and started to remove the damaged organs." The droid reported again. "What about the liquid in the stomach?" Mace asked. "A drug of some type of unknown origins. It allows the consumer take more pain than they normally could, it also is highly addictive."

They watched in numb horror as the medical droid pulled out a few more organs and pointed out the damage.

"He was most likely tortured. Burned than torn apart by droids, he was given the drug to prolong his suffering.

A computer chimed.

Shaya walked away from the horrible scene to see the results of the DNA test. The Force users felt her shock and horror. "Masters, I think you should see this." The Jedi Masters walked over to the screen. Padme could tell from their body language that the results shook them.

"What is it?" Luke asked.

"This is impossible!" Shaya exclaimed. "A man is dead but he's alive at the same time." Obi-Wan said. "Disturbing this is," Yoda muttered. "This answers one question but has spawned more." Mace said. "A slow and pain filled death." Anakin whispered. "Why though?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Who is it?" Mon asked.

Padme felt her chest freeze.

Anakin turned to face them.

"Our mystery patient is none other than Anakin Skywalker."

A/N

I have no idea which of Anakin/Vader's organs were removed or why. So I removed a few that I felt would have been badly damaged by the fire and/or breathing in smoke and fumes.


	5. Liar!

Sorry that it's taken awhile.

But here's the next chapter!

Luke felt his heart go still. _My father is one of the best. No one could do that to him!_ He thought forcefully.

"That can't be father because he's standing right here. No burns or missing limbs beside his right forearm." Leia said, a quiver in her voice.

"Is it possible that it is just some mistake?" Bail asked.

Shaya shook her head. "There is a slight chance that the DNA is damaged somehow, but it would have said so if that is the case. The it would have given us Master Skywalker's name as the closest match. Instead it said the these organs and bones belong to him."

"Wait, didn't the droid say that the bones belonged to someone in their early twenties?" Mon asked. Shaya nodded. "Then these definitely don't belong to Master Skywalker. He's in his early forties."

"Could it be a clone?" Padme asked. "No, the computer would have informed us if these belonged to a cloned being." The droid answered.

"In a few seconds we will see possible injuries to . . . whoever our friend is.' Shaya said.

Shaya turned a activated a hologram. On the empty table appeared a horrifically burned human. The lower legs were mostly gone. The remains of clothes were fused to what was left of his legs, chest and arms. Defining facial features were mostly gone, the hair had been completely burned away.

Cries and gasps of horror escaped everyone's lips.

"Who . . . who could just leave a fellow living being to die?" Leia asked. "Monster to one who tried to force him to live is." Yoda commented.

"Is this how he looked on the medical table? If so then we can track down who this might be!" Luke said, his voice hopeful. "The Center has no record of preforming any operation on any being. The only way for them to have treated him would be that he was never on file." Shaya said, annoyed. "Droids memories can be erased." Leia put in "If they really wanted to hide an operation of this scale that's the way to go." Luke continued. "They take what they need and make it look like it was never there." Leia finished.

"The only problem with your idea is that our friend here would need extensive life support to just live. He could never lead a normal life. Unless he was in a controlled environment but then very few people could visit him and only after being scanned for viruses. And-

"Master Skywalker what are you doing?" Shaya asked.

"Something isn't right."

A moment later the hologram changed. The legs ended above the knees, clean cuts. The left forearm ended above the elbow a clean cut as well. The foreright arm was a cybernetic replacement, it showed damage that could have only been caused by a fire.

"His . . . his . . . his upper legs are more or less useless." Shaya whispered in horror.

"Monsters." Obi-Wan whispered.

"If that's me than I would want to die." Anakin said flatly.

"Anakin Skywalker it is." Yoda pronounced grimly.

_On another part of Coruscant . . ._

Veers whistled as he watched several droids carefully maneuvered the monstrous attack transport into a standing position. "If one saw that on the battlefield they must any felt a wave of terror." he whispered. "I know that I would definitely run sir, if I knew that we didn't stand a chance." Mik Jerrison commented.

Veers laughed.

"Do you have any idea when Skywalker's going to show up?" Mik asked. "No, he's with the committee in charge of making sure that no stone is left unturned. But he should be here soon. Veers replied.

"How does Charly feel about you doing this?" Veers asked Mik. "Actually I haven't told her yet Max. She's really against me doing certain things. It's like she's afraid that I'll get blown up or something like that." Mik answered. "I don't want to deceive her but I just feel so free standing on the deck of a starship. It's like that's where I'm supposed to be."

Veers nodded. He understood the feeling. He loved leading missions.

"Here's Skywalker," Mik said.

Sure enough Anakin Skywalker's familiar profile was approaching them.

"Sorry gentlemen but we identified the remains found at the Republic R and R Center." Anakin said in a soft voice. "May I ask of the identity? My wife's brother disappeared a month ago and she's desperate for news." Mik asked. Anakin was silent for a moment. "It wasn't your wife's brother admiral."

"Is there something bothering you, sir?" Piett asked as he entered the chamber with Needa. "Yes, but I don't wish to discuss it at this time."

Anakin turned his attention onto the attack transport. "There's a lot of firepower in that heap of bolts." He said.

"Yes," Veers said, excitement creeping into his voice. "It appears to be built for one thing and on thing only: destruction." veers said. Anakin nodded in agreement.

Anakin stared at the machine. _You were created for death. Why?_

_Why did Captain Needa's body appear on the bridge of the _Defender?_ Why is he still alive? Neither is a clone. Something is just not right! I was burned alive and torn apart as a young man. Who did I anger besides the Sith that would wish that on me?_

_So many questions. So few answers._

_What was I doing on Mustafar? The Separatist Council was there. Did I go to arrest them, if so then why did I deactivate my beacon?_

_A deactivated beacon, burned me, a rebellion, a attack transport and strangled Needa. These are answers but questions at the same time and missing the key we are Master Yoda would put it._

_I don't even recognize the design. Neither do our connections in the Black Market. _Anakin thought glumly._ No one does, or do they?_

Anakin glanced back at the attack transport. "Piett, does that look familiar?" He asked the young captain. Piett frowned. "No sir, I haven't seen anything like it, except for the AT-TE." Piett responder. Anakin nodded. Piett had spoken truthfully. "Veers, Jerrison?" he asked. "No sir." They responded. Truth.

"Mik! What are you doing here?" Mik leaped into the air and spun around at the sound of the sharp female voice.

Anakin, Veers and Piett turned toward the source of the voice to find Admiral Jerrison's wife marching across the deck towards them.

"Charly, sweetheart, Max informed me that a armored transport had been found so I came to see it." Mik said quickly. _Liar._ Anakin thought.

Charly Jerrison glanced over her husband's shoulder. Her eyes widened.

"Mik, I want you home. It would be nice to eat as a family again." With that she turned and started to leave. "Lady Jerrison," Anakin called after her, "have you seen that armored transport before?" "No!" she called back.

LIE!


	6. Of Pain and of Severed Hands

Hey there's a familiar face in this chapter. So keep your eyes open

_The Skywalker apartment . . ._

Anakin was shocked

_How does a mathematics professor and theorist recognize an attack transport that no one has ever seen before._

He paced in front of the long windows of the sitting room.

_She knows something. That I know for a fact. I'm going to do a deep meditation on this._

Anakin sat down on the nearest chair and slipped into a meditative state. Slowly he reached deeply into a place that he had only once gone to. The first time he had gone there he had received insight on the debris of a ship; he had also nearly killed a fellow Jedi: Roan Shryne. Roan had told him that he had a detached look in his eyes; as if he didn't even realize where he was or what he was doing.

He had never told anyone about the state he had reached. He was afraid that they would have him go there again and again and that he would kill someone next time.

**PAIN! Horrible pain!**

**That idiot Ozzel! You don't just bring an entire fleet of cruisers out of Hyperspace on top of your enemy's planetary base! I've had enough of you and your other high society officers making mistakes that first year cadets make. You could have cost us the chance to capture him! You shall never make that mistake again.**

**A campaign on a frigid ice world the attack against the Rebels are AT-ATs. They will crush the Rebels! If the Force is with me than he will survive and I will find him.**

**NO! We were so close! How could the ship have slipped through Needa's fingers?!? ****I shouldn't have killed him. I have to find him soon. If I don't than he will die.**

**Maybe he won't surface. It might be better. But if he finds him first than he WILL kill him.**** I will torture his friends until he comes if necessary. Once he left Tatooine he made himself free game. He needs to be turned. It's the only way to ensure that he'll live.**

**What if he refuses?**** I'll find out what he knows about his father and if he doesn't know I'll tell the truth.**

**It will hurt. Seeing he most likely doesn't know the truth. I doubt that Obi-Wan would have told him unless it**** served his own purposes.**

**I should have captured him on the Death Star and tortured him slowly. Let him experience what it was like to be left to slowly die! ****He used to be my friend! Friends don't just leave other friends to die! Even if they are Sith Lords.**

_Too much pain!_

A tortured scream cut the air as Anakin Skywalker's mind registered all the pain it thought it was in. Unable to take it anymore he passed out

_A few hours later . . ._

Padme walked into her home and sighed.

_Finally some time to relax and spend time with the family. I wonder if Anakin has started supper yet._

"Anakin?" she called into the empty apartment, the twins would be home in another hour, there was no response.

_He said that he'd be home!_ She thought, throughly annoyed. _Maybe I misunderstood him or something came up._

A faint moan caught her attention.

"Anakin?" she called again, fear raising.

Padme quickly headed for Anakin favorite place in the house, the sitting room.

Padme froze at the sight that greeted her: Anakin was lying on the floor curled up almost in a ball. His eyes had a vacancy about them that frightened her.

"Anakin?" She almost cried as she gently shook him. He screamed in pain, swiped at her with his right arm and tried to move away from her.

Padme's hands shook as she reached for her commlink. She pushed Obi-Wan's sequence.

"Kenobi," "Obi-Wan, Anakin needs a healer! Something is very wrong!" Padme blurted into the commlink. "Padme, slow down. Do you know what happed?" "No, I just got home and I found him lying on the floor. He's nearly curled up in a ball. He lashed out when I touched him and he tried to move away. His eyes are vacant." Padme was beginning to sob.

"I'm on my way."

Padme turned off the commlink and waited.

A thought occurred to her and she retrieved a recording device from her cloak pocket and began to record the noises in the room for later analysis.

Without warning Anakin whispered something in a language that Padme was unfamiliar with. He continued to whisper in the unknown language before switching to the language of his mother's people and back again before saying in basic: What have I done?!

_Jedi Temple . . ._

Jedi Padawan Jada Mare sat in the Room of a Thousand Fountains waiting for a friend. She sighed. _He's always just a little late but that's okay. I have been a little late for some of our meetings too._

Jada sighed.

Out of habit she slipped into a meditative trance.

She had fought the urge all day to slice into people's records and follow other beings.

A tremor in the Force alerted her that something had just happened. Frowning she opened her eyes and stood.

She heard a soft splash and after a moment screams filled the air. Jada ran to the source. Soon she approaching a fountain, there were a dozen people gathered around crying.

_What has them all shaken up?_ She wondered as she closed the distance between her and the fountain. "What's going on here? She demanded. Then she saw a severed human hand clutching a lightsaber in the fountain.

"Someone, go and get Master Yoda and if you can't get him than get another Master."

One of the padawans ran off.

Jada quickly examined the rest of the crowd; looking for anyone that was either messing a hand or that looked guilty.

_I mind as well levitate it out of there. _Thought Jada.

Jada reached out and gently levitated the hand and lightsaber out of the fountain and set them on top of her cloak.

A padawan gasped. "That's Master Skywalker's lightsaber.


	7. More questions

_Jedi Temple, Halls of Healing . . ._

Padme sat beside Anakin's bed. He was unnaturally still, his eyes gazed almost sightlessly at the ceiling. A respirator mask over his mouth and nose.

"There is no physical reason that I can find that would explain his condition." Healer Vokara Che said as she approached her. "It is possible that he is having an intense Force Vision." The tremor in her voice betrayed her worry.

She kept the fact she didn't quite believe that he was experiencing a Vision or that many of his organs appeared to be shutting down to herself.

Padme gently brushed his left hand. _Please wake up Ani._ She thought at him.

Anakin's eyes flickered and he turned his head and for a moment he looked into her eyes before quickly turning away.

"Mom, I we got your message." Leia said as she came over with Han only steps behind her. "How is he?" she asked. Padme shrugged. "They're not sure yet. But Master Yoda is meditating on it." Padme answered.

Leia reached out through the Force and gently probed her father's mind. All she found was pain. Physical, mental and emotional.

Fragmented images came to her.

Bodies of Jedi on the floor of the Room of the Thousand Fountains . . .

A fiery world . . .

A pregnant woman clutching her throat . . .

Someone walking up a slope . . .

A dark man wearing a black cloak . . .

White armored men . . .

A bright light and so much pain . . .

A huge spherical space station . . .

A scream in the Force as countless of living things died and a world shattering to billions of pieces . . .

A man clutching his throat his eyes wide with fear . . .

A Jedi vomiting blood in a smoke filled room . . .

A Dark man using Force Lighting . . .

Fire . . .

Leia opened her eyes and found Han, Luke and her mother standing over her. "What happened?" she asked. "You screamed and fainted." Master Che explained. "I was trying to see what dad was seeing and it was horrible."

Master Che turned to one of the younger healers. "Ariel, please inform Master Yoda that Master Skywalker's condition is becoming critical and that we need to wake him up. Run." Ariel sprinted out the room.

"Lady Skywalker, your husband is dying. Whatever he's experiencing is killing him."

A few minutes later Master Yoda entered the room. Master Che, Master Skywalker's condition critical is, I am told." "His organs are shutting down, there is no medical reason for this."

Yoda moved over to Anakin's side and set his hands on Anakin's face. Yoda reached out in the Force and probed Anakin.

"Brace you should." Yoda informed the others in the room. Then he reached out and blocked Anakin's connection to the Force.

Anakin sat up and ripped off the face mask. He hated the sound! It reminded him of the place where he had been. He felt as if he had been suffocated. "What happened?" he asked. "We were hoping that you could tell us." Padme answered. "I was searching the Force for answers and . . . I am not sure what happened. All I remember is AT-AT or Imperial Walker and someone named Kendal Ozzel."

A chill ran down Luke's spine.

Obi-Wan walked in a moment later. "I'm glad to see that that you're awake Anakin."

"News you have?" Yoda asked Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan made his way over to old Jedi Master. "Anakin was speaking in Sith." Obi-Wan whispered into his ear. "Perplexing, know not the language Master Skywalker does." Yoda replied.

_Room of a Thousand Fountains . . ._

A gasp escaped Jada's lips. _It is Master Skywalker's lightsaber. But that's a right flesh and blood hand holding it. He has a cybernetic right arm._

"Padawan Mare, what happened?" Master Windu asks as he heads toward the fountain. "Padawan Jerjerrod said something about a severed hand."

"Yes," Jada responded. "It wasn't there one moment and the next it was in the fountain."

A healer retrieved the hand and lightsaber.

"Padawans, return to your duties."

_Well I guess that I won't be seeing Luke here today._

Jada headed to a training room and tried to forget the hand and the lightsaber but she couldn't. _There was no blood in the water or on my cloak and there was a burnt smell. A lightsaber must have been used to sever it. But who did it, who's hand, why and how did it get the Jedi and in the fountain?_

_The Halls of Healing . . ._

"Well who does the hand belong to?" Master Windu asked Shaya. "The hand was severed below the wrist. It appears to be done by a lightsaber. The lightsaber does belong to Master Anakin Skywalker. I am waiting for the results of the tests."

Shaya sighed.

"I do know that it belongs to a human male, late teens-early twenties, someone who spent a lot of time working with their hands, he were used to holding a blaster, he was in either a jungle or swamp before he went wherever he and whoever it was fought. And before you ask it was in a building with a lot of exposed metal because I found some metal on the skin."

The computer beeped.

"We have a positive match."

Mace watched as she read the results. He could feel her puzzlement. "Padawan Luke Skywalker, please report to examining room 23010." She announced over the intercom.

A few minutes later Luke walked into the room. "Yes Master Thak?" he asked. "May I see your right hand?" she asked. For five minutes she carefully examined his hand. Finally she checked the results of different tests. "You may leave now." She told him.

Mace watched Luke leave.

"It's Padawan Luke Skywalker's right hand. There is no doubt in my mind. DNA never lies." She told Mace.

_Skywalker apartment . . ._

"Master Che expects dad to make a complete recovery. He should be out in a couple of days. What did Master Thak want?" Leia asked Luke when he returned. I don't know, she didn't say." Luke replied.

"How's mom taking it?" Luke asked. "She's shocked but doing better. I half expected her to lock herself in the master bedchamber for a week." Leia answered. Luke laughed and Leia joined in.

Leia quickly sobered. "Luke, while you were gone Obi-Wan played the recording mom took while dad was like that and he said that when he was talking in his mothers language that he was analyzing someone."

Leia paused for a moment.

"Master Yoda said that the other language was the . . . the language of the Sith." She finished. Luke gaped. "How?" he asked. Leia shrugged. "Dad was confused himself. He couldn't even tell us what he had said."

The door chimed.

"Come in." Leia called.

The door opened to reveal a young woman with red hair and green eyes. "Jada, I'm sorry that I forgot to meet with you earlier." Luke said as he went to meet her. "I understand Luke." she answered. "I thought that you should know Luke that a severed hand appeared in a fountain earlier this afternoon. There are rumors that-" she hesitated. "Go on Jada," Luke gently prodded. "Because of the lightsaber that the hand was holding it is rumored that it is either your hand or Leia's hand."


	8. Puzzle Pieces

_Halls of Healing . . ._

_I feel so weird. It is as I shouldn't be able to feel the pillow I'm propped up on. Or feel the air from the vent on my face._

_Where was I in that place? I know that at one point I was on the surface of an ice planet and before that on the deck of a ship._

_And the Force . . . the Force had felt so cold, so empty, so Dark._

Anakin moaned at the memory of the Dark place. _I wouldn't go back there, there isn't anything that they do to make me want to go back there! Not if I am going to be muttering in the Sith tongue._

"Master Skywalker, have you regained either the use or feeling in your left arm and legs?" Master Che asked. Anakin was silent for a minute as he tried to move his left arm and legs. "No, not yet." He finally voiced out loud.

Master Che nodded. "Your body is trying to adjust to what ever happened. Can you tell me what you felt?" Anakin hesitated. "I was in so much pain. It hurt to breathe and walk. I was desperately searching for someone, someone that I believed dead. They must have thought that I had lost it." Anakin said.

"Who thought that you had lost it?"

Anakin frowned.

**You are weak. **Anakin's thoughts froze. **He's just going to turn him against you or make you kill him. Or make you watch as he kills him and makes you dispose of his body. So why don't you crawl back to your hole and die; that's what you want to do.**

_Who are you? _Anakin thought. **Me? I know you very well. You slaughtered an entire Tusken village because your mother died and they were the ones responsible for her death. You killed Dooku in cold blood. You allowed Sidious to kill Master Windu. **_No! I saved him from plunging to his death after a bomb went off, then I killed Sidious. _**There was no bomb. **_Yes there was. If it hadn't gone off I don't know what would have happened._

_You didn't answer my question. Who are you?_ **You were there when I slaughtered the Jedi. I was there when Kenobi left you to die. **_NO!_ I** was there when the medical droids tried to save your burnt carcass. I was there when you were told that SHE died.**

"NO!" he screamed.

"Master Skywalker, what's wrong?" Master Che asked.

Anakin couldn't stop gasping. "Someone . . . someone was . . . talking to me. He . . . he told me impossible things." "Like," Master Che pressed. "He told me that he knew things that he shouldn't know, that I was with him on several occasions and his version to events was off." "What events?" "He said that I . . . that I allowed Sidious . . . kill Master Windu and that I watched him as he slaughter the Jedi in the Temple."

"The Jedi were never slaughtered here, he was lying to you." Master Che said. "I know that he was lying." Anakin replied. **We don't lie, Jedi. Or have you forgotten? **Anakin looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. **We could have lied to him and told him that Obi-Wan was the reason the he grew up fatherless. But we told him the truth and the Force shrieked with his cries of denial. We-**

To Anakin's relief the voice was cut off in mid-sentence.

_Good riddance!_ He thought. _I hope to never hear from you again!_

"If you regain feeling in your limbs let me know. And you might be able to go home tonight." Master Che said as she left the room.

After a few hours Anakin fell into a dreamless sleep.

_Skywalker Apartment . . ._

"Are they sure that it's mine?" Luke asked. "The Healers aren't saying anything." _Master Thak asked to see me and she did all of these things with my hand but if it was my hand she would have said something._

"Thank you Jada, it's better hearing it from you than someone else." Luke told her.

_Three months later . . ._

Luke stood next Jada as his twin sister made her marriage vows. "One day that will be us, Jada." Luke whispered to her "You'll be dressed in a beautiful white gown and all our family and friends will be there." "I'd like that." Jada whispered back.

Padme couldn't believe it. Her youngest was now married. "She's all grown up Ani. It doesn't seem possible." "It seems like yesterday she was just learning how crawl." He commented.

"I wish that we could have had more." Padme whispered. "We tried, Angel. We tried."

Anakin slowly sipped a nutrient drink. Ever since he had collapsed three months ago his digestive system became touchy. He could still eat regular foods but nine times out of ten it would come back up. So it was easier just to have a nutrient drink.

_Later at the Solo apartment . . ._

Han Solo smiled. _I am one lucky guy! I am so glad that Charly Jerrison introduced me to her._

_Jedi Temple . . ._

Master Yoda was meditating. A few hours ago the Ozzel had finally given them the body of a man that shared the same DNA with Kendal Ozzel.

The Jedi and others had been searching for a connection between the body of Kendal Ozzel and the bodies of other and so far the only connections were that they had their windpipes crushed with the Force and many of them were wearing fleet uniforms.

It bothered him to no end that the Force was in turmoil and that there was no known cause for that or the things that had happened.

_An answer, tonight, we will not get._ He thought grimly.

Yoda came out of his meditation and turned to Mace Windu. "Difficult to see, impossible to know." He told the aging human Master.

"We will figure it out." Mace promised.

_Skywalker Apartment . . ._

_You would have thought that after a threat of death if he bothered Luke again would have made the lizard Xixor cease his attempts on Luke's life. But apparently death threats didn't work on those that thought that they were safe from his wrath because Sidious decided that they were useful. Well no one was going to kill his son; even if they did have Sidious's protection. He would see if he'd withdraw first and if he didn't-well then he would destroy Xixor's Skyhook. Time's up. "Commander, destroy that Skyhook." _Good bye Xixor and good riddances! _The skyhook shattered into thousands of pieces. Luke's safe for now._

Anakin sat up in bed trying to remember the dream that he'd just had. Someone had been trying to kill Luke and . . . . Anakin frowned. It was like trying to hold water in his cupped hands.

A wave through the Force suddenly washed over him and he stumbled backwards. _What was that? _He wondered.

He shifted to get out of bed only to see sickly white skin, horrible scars, prosthetic limbs and a thick cable that came out of a hole in his chest.

Anakin gasped in confusion and horror.

Then it all vanished.

_Jerrison Apartment . . ._

Mik Jerrison kissed his sleeping wife's cheek. _I love you, Space Angel. Even if I don't understand what you say half the time._

He quickly checked on Kali, Rahshel and Dayvyd. They were still fast asleep. He planted a kiss on each one of his children's cheeks before leaving the apartment.

He took the family speeder to Fleet HQ. In the Rec Room Firmus Piett sipped a mug of caf and Anakin Skywalker was staring off into space.

"How did you meet your wife, Mik?" Piett suddenly asked.

Mik blinked. "Well, fifteen years ago I was sitting in The Jedi and Senator when this beautiful woman about three years younger than me asks if she can join me. I told her that it wasn't for anyone and that she could take it. So she sat down and before I knew it we were talking about our work, places we've been too and our favorite things. She gave her datapad address and her comm number and a few days later I called to ask if she wanted to go and see the band Kuschel play. She said yes and during My Sweetest Love she looked at me with a sad look in her eyes so I kissed." Mik paused for a moment. "I was surprised when she kissed me right back. A few months later I proposed and we married two months later."

"Admiral, you met your wife at a ball held in honor of the scientific minds of the galaxy. She was standing in a corner trying to pretend that she wasn't there. You were just walking around when you saw her standing all alone and so you asked her for a dance. You danced the whole night and you kissed her during the song My Sweetest Love. You escorted her back to her apartment and she gave you her comm number and you gave her your datapad address. You were married six months later." Skywalker said.

Mik frowned. "You must be mistaken General. I think I'd remember if I met her at a party." Anakin shook his head. "I remember hearing you tell General Veers, Jir and Praj about it."

Mik looked at Piett, Piett looked at him.

_He must be thinking about someone else. _Mik thought. _ That's the only explanation._ _Isn't it?_

R/R

Authors Notes

In Kali the 'A' is pronounced short as in 'Al' and the 'I' is pronounced like an 'e'. Kinda like California. Rahshel is pronounced with kinda of lthe way it's spelt. 'Rah' then 'Shell'. Dayvyd is another way to spell the name David.

Kuschel is a German word. It means to either snuggle or cuddle.

The song 'My Sweetest Love' takes its name from from a German song called Kuschel by the band Schuffel. In the English translation the first line is 'You are my sweetest love.'It is basically the same song. You can listen to it on YouTube. I think it's sweet, but you're welcome to your opinion.

Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews


	9. Destruction and Missing Children

_Jedi Temple . . ._

Obi-Wan sat up gasping in horror.

_That was so horrible!_ He thought as he gasped for air.

He closed his eyes and tried to remember the planet he had been to in his dream, but it was nearly forgotten except for two things: a volcanic world and pain filled screams.

_It was only a dream. _He told himself. For some reason it didn't make him feel any better. But, for some reason, something told him that his dream was a memory.

_I HATE YOU!_ The words for no reason suddenly rang painfully in his memory.

_Alderaan . . ._

Queen Breha couldn't shake the sense of foreboding she had felt since the early morning. She had ordered security to cheek everything three times (or was it four times?). She stared out the window at the landscape.

Terror suddenly gripped her.

_I wish Bail was home._ She thought.

Then Alderaan exploded, taking the entire system with it.

_Jedi Temple . . ._

Panic erupted everywhere. Children screaming in the crèches, students crying, knights and masters fighting to keep their distress under control. _What happened?_ They all wondered.

_Something terrible has happened._ Obi-Wan thought.

_Republic Fleet Headquarters . . ._

Mik and Firmus watched as Anakin gasped in shock before collapsing onto the floor muttering idiot, sleemo and other things that they wouldn't dare repeat.

_Solo apartment . . ._

Leia felt as if part of her had been ripped out. She gasped and fought to breathe and keep her suddenly chaotic emotions in line.

_What happened? _She wondered.

_Yoda's chambers, hours later. . ._

"Search we will the Force. Learn what happened we will." Yoda told the assembled Jedi. Hours ago they had lost contact with Alderaan and ships couldn't exit in Alderaan space either.

The Jedi took seats and entered a meditative trance.

"I see a desert world with twin suns . . . two moisture farmers . . . they are being questioned. They can't answer their interrogators. They set them on fire with flamethrowers." Leia said softly.

"I see a stardestroyer chasing a Consoler's ship. Men trying to repel . . . Clones? A creature in black armor. They're searching for something." Luke informed them.

"A creature?" Yoda prodded. "It is covered completely in armor, no flesh shown at all. It's face is covered with a helmet and mask. You can hear it breathing across the room." Luke responded.

"I hear screams, terrified screams . . . something silences them." Obi-Wan intoned. "I see an obliterated Star System. Nothing is alive there except for those that destroyed it." Mace added

"I see holographic blueprints to. . . something. It's huge, easily the size of a small moon." Jada said.

"I see a Jedi and a Sith fighting. The Jedi is not going to last much long, although he could emerge as the victor." Anakin whispered. "What makes you think that the Jedi is fighting a Sith?" Yoda asked. "He's shrouded by the Dark Side and he hates the Jedi, the Jedi watched as he burned and then left him to die. He hates someone else though more deeply then the Jedi." Anakin replied. "The Jedi surrender, the Sith is puzzled; he expected a fight to the death. The Sith swings his lightsaber . . . his cloak falls in pieces to the deck his lightsaber falls on top of it. A voice screams 'no' and the stormtrooppers open fire. Where he go? I felt his death, or did I? His companions have escaped with the Princess. It doesn't matter though, a homing beacon has been placed on their ship, they will lead . . . ."

Something hit the floor. Luke opened his eyes to see his father withering on the floor in pain.

"Master Skywalker?" Mace asked. "Why didn't you kill me? It would have been the merciful thing to do. So many people would still be alive, including you, if you did." Anakin whispered softly before he started to gasp for air.

The gasps were quickly becoming more and more shallow. "Father?" the Skywalker twins asked in fright.

"It's not working Master Yoda. He was using the Force to help get air into his lungs, blocking his connection didn't halt it, it has made it worse."

_Halls of Healing . . ._

The Skywalker family sat around Anakin medical couch.

"He's going to have heart failure if we don't act soon." Master Che told them. "What do you need to do?" Padme asked. "We need to place a heartbeat regulator in his chest. For some reason his lungs can't keep up with his heart's demand for more oxygen."

_This can't be happening!_ Padme thought in fright. _Ani was always very healthy until three months ago._

"Madam Skywalker we need to know now before his condition deteriorates any further." Master Che gently pressed.

"Do it," Padme whispered.

_Operating Theater . . ._

Master Vokara Che was worried. Anakin's heartbeat had increased and she was afraid that he would go into cardiac arrest before her and the other healers completed the surgery.

"Master, we're losing him!" Numa Kye reported.

_Recovery Room . . ._

Anakin Skywalker slowly opened his eyes, the ceiling of a medical room greeted him. He felt drained, as if he ran seventy miles in two hours without stopping.

_What happened? What am I doing here? Why can't I remember?_

Slowly he sat up, ignoring the pain, to look around.

_I must have had surgery, but why?_ **To save your sorry carcass, that's why.** _Who are you?_ Anakin asked mentally. **I already told you who I am. It is not my fault that you cannot figure it out.**

_Three months ago you said that there was no bomb in the Chancellor's office. _**That is correct. **_Then did Admiral Jerrison meet is wife at a nightclub or a thing honoring the brightest scientific minds in the Galaxy? _**He met Charly Deacon at the Recognition of the Brightest Stars Gala.** _That's interesting, I heard him tell Piett that they met at The Jedi and Senator nightclub, but I could have sworn that he her at that Gala._ **He was mistaken. There would be no nightclub by that name in the galaxy, unless the owners and patrons had death wishes.**

The voice faded, leaving Anakin alone with his thoughts. They were not pleasant.

_Republic Stardestroyer_ Justice _three days later. . ._

Obi-Wan stood on the bridge of the _Justice_ waiting for the ship to exit hyberspace, hopefully in the Alderaan system.

When the star fell into place was when Obi-Wan felt it: A place filled with the Dark Side.

"Master Kenobi, Alderaan is not showing up on scanners." A technician reported. "How can Alderaan not be showing up on scanners?" Admiral Jerrison asked as he looked out the viewport. "There is several reasons as to why Alderaan is not appearing on scanners." Anakin said from the viewport. "One is that somehow Alderaan has been moved, that one however is not likely. Seeing the damage to the other planetary bodies in the system leads me to think that something catastrophic happened."

"We are picking up a small asteroid field though orbiting the sun." The same tech reported.

"I feel that Alderaan was destroyed." Anakin stated. "I think that they let you out of the Med Center too soon." Jerrison said. "No, I can feel the deaths of countless living things. The Light's agony and the Dark's pleasure, their screams of terror before Death surrounded them in It's embrace." Anakin explained.

Obi-Wan shivered involuntarily, Anakin had spoken so matter of fact-ly.

"What could destroy a planet like that?" Captain Veers asked. "An abomination to the Force." Anakin said, his voice laced with contempt.

Obi-Wan nodded his head in agreement. _That was an abomination, I am grateful that Luke destroyed it and that horrible person Tarkin._

Obi-Wan frowned.

"Anakin, has Luke blown anything up in the last three or so years, something bigger than that old stardestroyer?" He asked. "Yes, he did." Anakin's voice was filled with pride. "Do you know what he blew up?" he asked.

Anakin frowned.

"The Death Star." Anakin finally replied.

_Rekindled Dream . . ._

Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano sat in the pilot seat of the freighter on her way back to the Temple after a lengthy three year mission. She was looking forward to seeing her master and her friends again.

And maybe she could get answers to some of her questions.

Ever since she had taken the assignment she found herself checking three of the ship's quarters every night. She cooked meals for five and not one. Most of all she felt as if others should be with her.

"_Are you alright?" _A soft voice asked. Ahsoka turned and saw a young togruta girl standing in the hatchway. "I'm fine," she replied. _"It's okay, I miss daddy too."_

Ahsoka frowned. "Who are you?" she asked. The young togruta looked hurt. _"It's me, Rayn, mommy."_

Before Ahsoka could react to Rayn's answer, Rayn vanished.

_Jedi Temple . . ._

Leia boarded _Rekindled Dream_ to see if she could find Master Tano. She found her searching the ship, unease and fear leaking from behind her shields.

"Master Tano, is everything alright?" she asked.

"I can't find them!" Ahsoka whispered fearfully. "Who?" Leia asked. "Asha. Ptera, Rayn and Anakin! I know they were here when I left!" she cried.

Leia watched for a few more seconds as Ahsoka tore the compartment apart looking for the wayward beings before gently grabbing Ahsoka's arm. "Why don't you go and report to the Council and I'll stay to look for them. It will be quicker." Leia suggested.

Ahsoka hesitated, they didn't know Leia, but it didn't mean that they wouldn't come out of wherever they hid.

"Tell them that I want to see them the moment you find them." She told Leia as she left.


	10. Are we living a Lie?

_500 Republica . . ._

Bail Organa had never felt more lost before in his life. Alderaan was gone, and with it his wife and family.

Part of him felt as if he had been blown up and his atoms scattered across interstellar space.

_Oh Breha, how I will miss you!_ He thought. _Where you afraid or did you not have time? Did you see it coming or did it just happen?_

_Three moths later . . ._

Leia and Han sat on their balcony watching the traffic pass by.

"I'm really glad you're back from Caamas, I missed you terribly." He said as he held her closely. "I know," Leia replied, "It was hard to be away for so long, but once I tell the Council the good news I'll be teaching for awhile."

"What good news?" he asked, curious. Leia smiled gently. "We're going to have a baby." she told him.

"That's wonderful!" he said after a moment. "Are you sure?" Leia nodded. "Does anyone else know?" he asked. "No, I was planning on telling mom and dad tomorrow when we go over for supper and then telling the Council the next day." she answered.

Han shook his head.

"I'm going to be a father." he whispered softly.

_The remains of Alderaan . . ._

Luke wanted nothing more than to leave this horrible place and never come back.

Even after three months the stench of the Dark Side was as strong as it had been when Alderaan had been mysteriously destroyed.

_I don't understand why I need to be here. Anyone else could do this! I wonder if this is how he feels when the Emperor sends him someplace to 'motivate' people._

Luke shook his head to dispel his depressing thoughts.

"Admiral, if anything new turns up I'll be in my chamber." Luke informed the admiral then turned and left the Bridge.

Luke tried to meditate to help drive away the coldness of the Dark Side, but to no avail.

_Is there any truth in what he told me?_ Luke wondered.

_What truth?_

At that moment his commlink beeped. "Yes?" _"We have been ordered to return to the Capital."_ The admiral's voice said over the commlink. "Then by all means set a course." Luke replied. _"Yes sir,"_ the admiral replied.

A few minutes later Luke felt the ship make the jump into hyperspace.

_Senatorial Sector Coruscant . . ._

Jada stood next to her Master, Kylie Dast, on a docking platform that hovered miles over the planet's surface.

Jada found her attention wandering away from the senator from only the Force knew where.

_Pay attention Jade! The last thing you need is a 'reminder' on not letting your mind wander!_

"Dast, it has been too long." The senator said as he approached them. "Yes, it has Ordo." Her Master said warmly. "I look forward to hearing about your student."

Jada had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

_The way they are acting one would think that they were old lovers. And might still be together._ She thought sullenly.

_Jedi Temple . . ._

"I am telling you, I have never heard of anything called the "Death Star" before in my life and I certainly didn't destroy it." Luke told those assembled in a room within the Jedi Temple.

"Yes you did." Leia, his father and Obi-Wan said as one.

"I think that I would remember if I destroyed a huge battlestation capable of destroying entire planets. And I have no memory of doing so." Luke said again.

"But Luke you did." Leia said. "I remember that you turned off you targeting computer and we were all worried because you were one of the last fighters and were afraid that you were not going to be able to make the shot."

"You fired two photon torpedoes through the ray shielded exhaust port which led to the main port that led directly to the Main Reactor." Anakin put in.

"You nearly met the same fate as twenty-seven other pilots." Obi-Wan added

Luke reached out to the Force to see if they spoke the truth. The Force, to his distress, didn't have an answer.

_500 Republica . . ._

Jada stared out at the cityscape bored out of her mind.

She closed her eyes and blocked the conversation between her Master and the senator out.

She thought of trying to contact Luke to help relieve her of the monotone of everything but dismissed it. Her Master would be very . . . annoyed if she caught her doing something she considered frivolous.

A tremor ran through the Force, a warning that something was about to happen.

Jada frowned. Over the past months she had come to dread these tremors. Something strange usually happened shortly afterwards.

Screams suddenly filled the Force as billions of beings lives were abruptly snuffed out.

Jada gasped in shock and opened her eyes and gasped in horror; at least a square mile of city was gone.

_Ground Zero . . ._

Mace Windu surveyed the huge gaping hole in Coruscant's cityscape. Just an hour earlier buildings had filled the hole and had been populated by all sorts of beings. Now they were all gone, just gone.

"Reports are coming in from all over the galaxy of similar occurrences." Obi-Wan informed him as he followed the aging Jedi Master deeper into the hole. "In some cases it is entire cities or parts of mountainsides or forests."

"It is disturbing." Mace said.

"Do you find it odd that even though we felt them die there is no residue in the Force?" Mace asked. "Very odd. It is as if they never existed." Obi-Wan said. "Or as if they didn't die here." "You sound like Master Seachan." Mace said. "She has told me that she doesn't think we are alive anymore."

"How can we not be alive?" Obi-Wan asked as they continued their descent. "I don't know, but the Force tells me that something isn't right." "Nothing feels right Mace, it feels as if we are caught in the event horizon of a black hole and in any moment we are going to be crushed."

"Master Seachan said something similar yesterday afternoon." Mace said once they reached the bottom. "Except she said that the tapestry was being unwoven."

"Maybe I should speak to her and see if I can gain something from a little chat." "Good luck with that." Mace said with amusement, "and then tell me how it went."

_Jedi Temple, Halls of Healing . . ._

Anakin tried to block the sound of the respirator, but it was hard to ignore.

It didn't help that it seemed as if he had been sent through a tumbler, set on fire and forced to endure an experimental surgery.

**Xizor thought he could try to discredit me in the eyes of my Master by killing my only son. He was a fool to think that I wouldn't make good of my threat.** **I wish that I could have seen the look on his face when he realized that Executor's main weapons were targeting his Skyhook.****Killing him was nearly as satisfactory as killing the Separatist Council. **_They were defenseless though. What am I going to tell _him_ when he returns? _**I'll just say that I discovered that he was plotting against us and dealt with him accordingly. Best of all it won't be a lie, he was plotting against us.**

Anakin shook his head and the strange thoughts scattered like many vermin do when a bright light falls on them.

He had started gasping for air shortly after the tremor in the Force and the deaths of billions of lifeforms.

He had been brought into the Halls of Healing where Master Che informed him that his lungs were not getting enough oxygen for his body's needs.

Some sort of device had been wrapped around his chest to help his diaphragm function better, it hurt so badly when it contracted, but not as badly as his upper arms and legs, then he had been put on a respirator.

Now that he thought about it the sound of the respirator felt right as if he should hear himself breathe, or rather hear machines breathe for him.

Anakin shivered. _I would rather be dead than depend on machines to stay alive! _

**What if the choice wasn't your own? What if you hated yourself too much to commit suicide?**

_Why would I not commit suicide? _**Because death would mean that you forgave yourself for killing HER.**_ I don't understand. _**Yes you do, SHE was everything to you and you killed HER.**_ Who did I kill? _**Your Beloved.**

Anakin felt as if the Desilant Dam had breached with him standing in front of it. He was drowning and being crushed by the pressure of water.

_No! Padme isn't dead. I talked to her just an hour ago. _**She's been dead and gone for nearly twenty three years.**

_A few hours later . . ._

Ahsoka walked into her Master's room expecting him to be alert and pleased to see her.

She found him with his knees tucked under his chin gazing at his boots radiating sorrow, guilt, despair and self loathing.

"Master?" she whispered.

He lifted his head to reveal pain filled eyes. "They're all dead. I watched them die. They just stood there as they were cut down. They didn't even defend themselves. They feared him. They feared death. Some of them tried to runaway."

Ahsoka shivered at the dead tone her Master spoke in.

"Who Master? Who did you watch being killed? Who did it?"

Anakin was silent for a long time.

"I would rather be dead!"

Ahsoka walked across the room and pressed the summons button.

"What is it?" Master Che asked. "Something is wrong with Master Skywalker. He is talking about people being killed." Ahsoka said. "I will be there in a moment."

"Why didn't he kill me?"

Ahsoka turned back to Anakin.

"It would have been better. So many people would still be alive."

The door opened and Master Che came in and injected something into Anakin's arm.

"What was that Master?" Ahsoka asked when Anakin slumped over. "I don't know Master Tano." Master Che answered.

"Now can you tell me what he said?"

_Elsewhere in the Jedi Temple . . ._

Jada, Leia and Luke walked in a secluded section of the Jedi Temple talking.

"I don't know about you two but something strange is going on." Leia said. "What do you mean?" Luke asked. "Well for starters there is no reason that we shouldn't have at least one younger sibling; mom and dad tried for years without success and there is no medical reason as to why."

Luke nodded.

"Another thing those bodies have living doubles and they were all but one was strangled with the Force." "Who was the one that wasn't?" Jada asked. "Raymus Antilles, and his throat was completely crushed." Leia answered

"For some reason I remember vaguely hearing stories about someone killing their subordinates." Luke said softly, Jada nodded in agreement.

"Then when Master Tano came back I found her searching her ship for children. Apparently they were hers." Leia continued. "But Master Tano isn't married and she wasn't transporting children." Jada said. "That's the point, but part of her was convinced that she had children with her and that they were hiding."

Luke and Jada shared a confused glance before turning back to Leia.

"And then those innards that belonged to dad were found and said that he had been burned alive, had several organs removed in an emergency operation while he was awake and without pain killers but that they gave him a narcotic. And he was in his early twenties."

Luke nodded slowly to say that he still was following her Mag-Lev of thought.

"Do you remember when dad collapsed for the first time?" Luke and Jada nodded. "Well you then remember that I reached out to him. I saw things and one of the things I saw and felt was a scream in the Force as countless of living things died and a world shattering to billions of pieces." Leia paused for a moment. "What I saw must have been the destruction of Alderaan.

"The only problem is that it seemed like it was a memory of a past event not a vision of what might be." Leia sighed.

"Are you sure that you're thinking straight and not drawing this out of thin air?" Luke asked, "because I heard that pregnant woman draw strange conclusions."

Leia glared at Luke.

"It sounds like a puzzle that only Master Seachan would enjoy." Jada said. "She likes things that defy common sense and logic."

"I am sure that I am thinking straight and I am being to have nightmares and I am beginning to remember things and people that I didn't remember before. But the moment I try to track the memory down it vanishes like shadows in a light filled room."

_Jedi Master Alli Seachan's workshop, Jedi Temple . . ._

"Anakin told me that when that armored transport was first brought to Coruscant he asked different people in the room if they had seen it before. All of them said no but one of them was lying." Obi-Wan told the strange Jedi Master as she flipped through sheets of flimsiplast.

"Did he say anything else about the person that had lied?" she asked. "He said that she wasn't in the armed forces." he responded, "that she is a mathematician and a theorist."

"What is she a theorist in?" Master Seachan asked, continuing to flip through her notes. "I don't know and neither does Anakin." he replied.

Finally she looked up from her notes. "Obi-Wan, do you ever feel that you don't belong somewhere or find yourself believing that you are elsewhere or that you have not stepped inside the Temple in years after coming back from a three week mission?"

Obi-Wan blinked. He had not expected such a question.

"For some reason I expected to find the Temple devoid of life and in need of repairs when I returned from the remains of the Alderaan System." He finally responded. "Six different Knights and Masters said the same thing when I asked them and several had to be nearly dragged across the plaza and up the steps." She told him.

"Something isn't right." Obi-Wan whispered softly. "Of course something is not right." Master Seachan replied, going back to her flimsiplasts.

_Leki House, Coruscant three months later. . ._

The doctor sighed. Twenty two years ago young Daine Jir had been brought in and he had been diagnosed several mental problems. One of them was delusions and possible repressed memories of the Clone Wars.

Dr. Murdo Hurst had spent years devoted to Jir trying to get him to see reason since drugs didn't work.

"Daine, you do know that what you are talking about this a figment of your imagination." Dr Hurst started. "That there is no Empire, that you are not in the Imperial navy, that the Jedi didn't betray the Republic, that you do not serve a Lord Darth Vader and that you didn't travel back in time."


	11. Insanity?

I apologize for the long wait, but on a brighter note it's a whopping just over ten pages and nearly 5,000 words long! My longest post yet!

_A few days later . . ._

When Leia had woken up she knew something was wrong but couldn't place her finger on it. But a sense of foreboding hung in the air. _Please no more horrible deaths._ She silently plead.

Han could see that something was wrong. He could see it in the way Leia held her fork, how she stared out the windows, how her gaze lingered longer than normal on her plate and how she would stroke the pendant he gave her on their fifth date.

Something was wrong.

"Leia," her head shot up. _Yes something is wrong._ Han thought. "If you don't want me to help identify ship parts I can stay home." Han offered. Leia slowly shook her head. "We need to identify those ships, besides I'd feel guilty keeping you from your work."

Han nodded. "But if you need me to come home I want you to call." "I will."

Leia watched Han leave. _I should have asked him to stay._

_One hour later . . ._

Leia sat in the nursery and tried to weave the blanket she had been working on for the past week only to set it aside and wander throughout the apartment. The foreboding feeling hung thickly in the air.

On an impulse Leia turned on the HoloNet. "-ave been questioned extensively but they are not admitting to anything." Leia watched as the Duro reporter take about a recent attack on a world in the Outer Rim.

"A fire that broke out in a residence building earlier this morning killing six and hospitalizing thousands. Some of those are recovering at the Republic Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Center."

Leia's head shot up. _That's where those organs that belong to dad were found. I wonder . . . ._

Leia quickly turn the HoloNet off.

"We're going to do some investigating, Little One." Leia told the baby as she slipped her cloak on.

The baby didn't respond to her her voice. _She's probably sleeping._ Leia told herself as she walked out the door.

_The Jedi Temple, Halls of Healing . . ._

"Master Skywalker, before I release you I have a few questions for you." Master Che said. "Alright, what do need to know?" Anakin asked rubbing his face in hopes that some feeling would return to it. "Do you remember what you were talking about three standard days ago when your former padawan Ahsoka Tano visited you?" "No, I don't."

Master Che frowned. _I shouldn't be surprised that he doesn't remember because he doesn't remember any of the other things he has._

"You do understand that you can only remove the Diaphragm Assister to shower, right?" "Of course." Anakin answered. "And If you are going to be outside for a prolonged period of time you need to wear an oxygen mask?" Anakin nearly rolled his eyes. "Yes, I understand that as well." "Good. If you feel light headed or have any trouble breathing I want you to tell someone so that they can get you here as soon as possible." "Yes Master Che." Anakin said beginning to become annoyed.

"Then you are free to go, someone is waiting to escort you home."

Anakin smiled when he felt two familiar presences. _I wonder what he's doing out of the Home._

The door slid open to reveal Ahsoka and Rex.

"Hey Snips, Rex." Anakin said as he slid off the bed. "Glad to see back on your feet Skyguy." Ahsoka said with a smile. "You gave me quite a scare the other day." "It's good to see again sir." Rex said.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm escorting you home; besides I wanted to speak to you." Ahsoka said. "That's fine Snips," Anakin replied as they left the Halls of Healing.

"Master when I named my ship Rekindled Dream it felt right; like I was supposed to have a ship named the _Rekindled Dream_." Ahsoka began. "And every time I docked I'd ask discretely for information about a human male missing his right fore arm who was a great pilot and even better mechanic." "What's so strange about asking discretely for someone?" Anakin asked, "unless you have no idea why you were asking about him." he finished. "The truth is Master I was looking for you." Ahsoka confessed. "Don't ask me why I wasn't identifying you as a Jedi or asking so discretely."

Anakin nodded.

"Maybe it's the Force." Rex said; speaking for the first since they left the Hall.

"What do mean?" Anakin asked. "You Jedi rely on the Force to guide you right? So maybe the Force lead you to ask those questions." Rex explained.

"That is a thought," Ahsoka said in a ponderous tone. "But the question is why."

_The RR and R . . ._

"I don't understand why you want to see the room now Master Jedi." A doctor said as he led Leia to an isolated operating theater near the top of the Center. "I have a theory that I can only test if I am in the theater." Leia explained. "We didn't even know that it existed until a patient was brought in from the landing platform. The droid turned a different way and then informed us about the OT. Shortly afterwards the innards that we sent you appeared."

Leia nodded to show that she understood. "Was the OT missing from the buildings blueprints?" "Yes it was" the doctor replied. "Do you have any theories as to why?" she asked. "No,' he answered.

A few minutes later they entered the room.

"This will take some time." Leia explained to the doctor. "And I'm sure that you have better things to do than to watch me." "If you think that is best than I will go about my other duties."

Leia carefully slid into a meditative position and prepared herself for what she might feel.

**She was standing in the rain on one of the facility's landing platforms watching an old Theta Class shuttle escorted by two prototype TIE fighters come in for a landing. All along the length of the platform were Clonetroopers facing the city, blasters ready to start firing at anything that got too close.**

**The shuttle landed and the ramp descended and an escort of four Clones flanked a medical capsule. Her jaw dropped at the sight of the patient. His left arm was completely gone about the elbow and his legs were gone above the knees. Third degree burns covered his body. An oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose.**

**It was then that she noticed someone following behind. He was wearing a black cloak with the hood up; even then it did not hide his horribly deformed face. **

**More clones debarked and took guarding positions on the platforms.**

_**Is he a prisoner or a official of some type? Or is he father?**_

**She moved with them into the Operating Theater. **

**The clones allowed the medical droids, a 2-1B, a Medtech FX Surgical Assistant and an Ubrikkian DD-13 better known as the Galactic Chopper. **_**They aren't going to save his life! Or are they?**_ **Leia wondered as she remembered that someone had apparently tried to save her father or torture him to death.**

_**Maybe they were experimenting on him to see if it was possible but why?**_

**She watched as the droids moved the man to the table and winced as he screamed almost animalisticly from the pain caused by the movements.**

**She had to give them some credit, it looked like they were trying to be careful with him during the examination.**

**She watched as the 2-1B left to report the man's condition to someone, most likely to the man who brought him in.**

**Leia watched as the 2-1B returned and they began to operate.**

**It was than that she noticed camera droids floating around, recording every move the man and the droids made.**

_**Why is this being recorded?**_** She wonder as she watched the FX measure what was left of his legs.**

**She shivered and glanced away when she heard him scream inhumanly and saw him flail at the 2-1B with his cybernetic arm, trying to push it away from him and winched as the FX slid a long needle into what was left of his right leg.**

_**Dad, is this you?**_** She asked silently.**

**She watched in growing horror as they latched restraints around his limbs, cut his chest open, his screams were now almost soft wails of agony, and began to remove his organs.**

**She felt someone nearby relishing in his suffering. **_**Only a Sith could take so much pleasure in the suffering of another.**_** Leia thought darkly.**

**Leia was almost grateful when the scene dissolved into darkness and then replaced by feelings.**

**Pain! Never ending pain.**

**Fear.**

**Confusion.**

**Worry, concern, panicked confusion, anger, crushing self hatred and equally crushing despair.**

Leia screamed, clutched her stomach before she collapsed.

_Jedi Temple . . ._

_It has to be a lie. Ben had no reason to lie to me! But I felt the truth when he told me search my feelings. And-_

A sharp pain in his stomach interrupted Luke's depressing thoughts nearly causing him to lower himself to the floor.

_Leia!_

Luke leaped to his feet and nearly ran out of the room in a blind effort to find his twin and ease her suffering.

_Somewhere is Corscant's traffic lanes . . ._

"You wouldn't believe how many people Snips had to convince that it would be beneficial for me to go visit you before they let let her take me to see you sir." Rex said. "The whole facility?" Anakin asked playfully. Rex laughed. "Pretty close."

Rex sighed.

"I'm sorry to hear that your health has been poor sir." Anakin waved his hand dismissively. "Sooner or later they find out what is wrong and than-"

Rex watched as Anakin's eyes glazed.

"Sir?" he asked.

"Ahsoka, please take us to the Telia Building. Something is wrong with Leia." Anakin said. "But I promised Master Che that I'd take you straight home." Ahsoka hedged. "Just take us." Rex said. "I'd rather face Master Che's wrath than face her Ladyship's."

Ahsoka nodded and switched lanes. "We'll be there in twenty minutes."

_R R and R . . ._

She was trapped in something. She could feel it against her skin and how it covered her completely. She could feel the weight of something on her head, shoulders, chest, upper legs and upper arms.

"She seems to be coming around sir." a voice said from somewhere. "Is someone from the Jedi Temple coming?" "Yes sir, they said to keep her calm until a Healer can check her out." "Than I will leave her in your hands TooCee."

Was she dreaming or was she suffering from something else?

As Leia opened her eyes the feeling of the weight and whatever-it-was faded. She was in some type of medical center but it wasn't the Halls of Healing. "Where am I?" she asked softly. "You are at the Republic Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Center." A medical droid said helpfully.

As Leia sat up she realized something that froze her blood: her unborn child was gone.

"No, please Force, no!" she wailed.

"The child was already gone when we reached you. Even if we reached you in time there wasn't anything we could have done to save the child." the droid explained almost sympathetic.

Hot tears poured down Leia's face. _I lost Han's child._

_I failed to keep the baby safe just like I failed my Master and Kari._

A short time later Jedi Healer Deveron Essan entered.

"How do you feel Knight Solo?" he asked. "I just lost the child I was two months away from delivering, how am I supposed to feel?" Leia asked.

"Doctor Rihard said that I can take you and the child back to the Temple." "Why?" she asked. "Well it might be better if you had a Force trained healer and so you can be there when we preform the funeral rites for the child."

"I want to see my baby." She whispered.

A droid left and and returned a short time later with a tiny bundle. Leia took the bundle from the droid and stared at her lifeless child. "The child is female." The droid said. _We would have named her Kora._ Leia thought.

"It helps to cry." The droid said, it's voice gentle; almost caring.

So Leia did.

She cried for the man in her Vision, she cried for her Master, she cried for Kari and she cried for her lifeless daughter.

_Jedi Temple evening . . ._

Han Solo watched as the flames consumed his daughter as he held Leia tightly.

"We can try again princess." He whispered. "If that's what you want." Leia nodded. "Next year." she said softly.

Across the hall Yoda stood watching the Skywalker and Solo families mourn the passing of the Solo child.

"What I don't understand is why she lost the child." Master Che said. "There was nothing wrong with the child. Unless whatever she felt is what caused the child to die."

"Speak in a few days to her we will. Find out why she was there we will." Yoda said. "According to the personal of the Republic Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Center she asked to see the room where they found her father's innards. She than entered a meditative trance that last three hours before she screamed and collapsed."

"That name sounds familiar." Mace muttered. "It should, that's where Anakin's damaged organs were found nearly a year ago." Obi-Wan said.

"Could she have been seeing if a Force Imprint had been left?" "From her reported reaction there is a _very_ strong Force Imprint there."

"Does anyone think it odd that the Force has been oddly silent on these matters?" Obi-Wan asked all the Masters gathered around. "Disturbing it is." Yoda agreed. "Until come forward someone does, lost all will be."

Everyone shifted uneasily. Yoda's words no longer brought reassurance, only unease.

_Somewhere on Coruscant . . ._

A figure stood in a window and stared out at the cityscape trying to ignore the huge gaping hole only a quarter of a mile away. _It will restabilize soon. It has to!_

The figure took a deep breath as tears started to form.

_It just has to!_ They thought as they clutched a data/holo disk playing the image of two Star Destroyers, one with flames coming out of the hanger and the other missing nearly half of it's bridge, colliding then exploding.

_Skywalker Apartment . . ._

Padmé looked out the sitting room window and shivered. Something was wrong and she didn't need the Force to her that there was more to come.

"I hope Leia seeks a Soul Healer before whatever she saw and felt eats her alive." Anakin whispered in her ear. "You think that what she saw and felt bothers her more?" Padmé asked. "Yes, I do believe whatever it was frightened her more than we can possibly imagine." "What do think she saw and felt Ani?" she asked. Anakin shrugged. "Leia is a powerful empath and can be very sensitive to certain things like others pain." He explained.

Padmé turned to face him.

"What type of being could purposely cause an already severely injured even more pain." Padmé asked. "Either a psychopath or a Sith Lord." Anakin answered. "Who would do that to anyone?" she asked, remembering the organs that had been brought to them nearly a year agp. "A Sith or a psychopath would and could inflict great pain on others and not care, a Sith would be amused at their suffering." he replied.

"Anakin, could someone do that to you?" she asked. Anakin smiled gently. "The only thing in the galaxy that could is a Sith and they are gone for forever." "Promise?" she asked. Anakin's smile broadened, pain suddenly spiking throughout his face. "I promise."

Then he pulled her close, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her to help sooth her.

**Why do you torture yourself? It is only going to cause you more pain.**_ I don't understand why you seem to think that Padmé is dead._ Anakin thought to the Dark voice. **Because she is and it is high time that you stop imagining her in your arms.** _Padmé is _not_ dead! I can Feel her, I can smell her and I can touch her!_ **Really? Than why are your arms empty and your hands touching your shoulders?**

Anakin frowned. The voice was telling him the truth. His hands were touching his shoulders.

Anakin slowly opened his eyes, fearing that the voice was right, and gasped.

Padmé was standing in front of him but his arms were in her!

He dropped his hands to his sides in shock.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Is something wrong Ani?"

Anakin hesitated before reaching out with a hand to stroke her check, his hand touched warm solid flesh. "No Angel," he whispered.

**If you want pain than why not replay the memory of cutting his hand off or the destruction of Alderaan? Why **_**her?**_

Anakin shivered.

_Leave me be!_ He screamed into the Force. **Why won't **_**you**_** leave me be? For years you were silent with only the occasional whimper of protest, cries of fear and tears for what could have been. ****You stirred more when we chased him through the Trench, tore apart archives when we heard his name, shook in anger when what we suspected was confirmed, shivered with anticipation when we saw him clearly for the first time, frowned in confusion when he ignited the blade he no doubt received from **_**HIM**_**, cried out in horror when we cut off his hand and then you crept back when the ship he was disappeared into Hyperspace.**

_Who are you? _Anakin asked again, afraid, confused and vaguely annoyed with the voice.

**I wonder if he has any hatred directed at me for the loss of his hand.**** It was his own fault that he took his left hand off the hilt.**

_Oh great, now I'm hearing _two _voices!_ Anakin thought.

**Have I gone insane? I wouldn't be surprised if I have. Guilt can drive one Mad.** _Who are you? _**I must be insane if I created all of this!**

Anakin felt as if he was swimming in a sea of pain, Physical and emotional.

_Who are you? Who are you talking about?_

**No, I can't be that insane! They would have picked up on it! ****Being left for dead and then cut to pieces by droids without pain medication does things to you.**** So does cutting off you own-**

"Anakin, are you alright?"

Anakin jerked in surprise. Padmé was looking at him in concern. "It's nothing Angel, must be the lingering effects of everything."

Padmé nodded slowly.

"Let's go to bed before anything else happens Ani." She gently begged.

**Maybe this is the punishment for failing to protect the Death Star. ****That was nearly four years ago and the punishment for that failure has already been handed out. Besides what would this gain Master? ****Greater hatred?**** I already hate him. ****I hate myself more than I can possible hate him. ****That is true.**

**Maybe this is all just a strange dream?**** Not likely, I do not reflect on what could have been on the Bridge.**

**I do not see why he is using me once again to hurry a project along! If you rush something as delicate as something like a moon sized battle station you are going to run into problems at a later date and ****he is going to blame me for it!**

_Am I hearing two voices or is it just one voice? _Anakin wondered as he laid down next to Padmé. _One voice has a cold, bitter edge to it lined with anger and deep self loathing. The other one has the self loathing but there is self pity and crushing regret in it as well. There's something else though._

**STUPID OFFICERS!** Anakin nearly jumped at the vicious shriek.** CAN"T THEY DO ANYTHING RIGHT? ****One would think that they're first year cadets the way they act!**

_SHUT UP!_ Anakin yelled, _shut up! Go away and leave me alone!_

**Interesting, who are you?**_I am Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker. _**Impossible! Anakin Skywalker is-**

_Is what?_ Anakin asked. **Gone.** _What do you mean 'gone'? _He asked, puzzled.

Silence.

Anakin suddenly remembered something the voice had said. _You said that you were left for dead then cut apart by droids. Why?_

More silence.

Anakin sighed. He wasn't sure whether he should be relieved that the voice was gone or worried that he was hearing it in the first place.

_Maybe I am insane._ Anakin thought glumly before sleep claimed him.

_A few hours later . . ._

Daine Jir gazed out a window, deep in thought.

_I don't care what they say! I am Commander Daine Jir of Death Squadron! I serve Lord Vader! I help command the 501__st__! I know that there should be an Empire instead of the Republic. The Jedi were/are gone there's only Luke Skywalker and maybe a hand full of others who are hiding who knows where! _Daine thought.

Daine shifted and continued to stare out the window.

_Why did I listen to her? _He wondered.

_She said that if I brought her to Gastra then she could help everyone. All of this has been of no help to me!_ He thought grumpily.

_I have never felt so depressed! I haven't been free for twenty-two years! _Daine sighed as he watched hundreds of beings going about their business.

"Daine, it's time for your meds, then it's time for for you to retire for the night." Daine stood still as the nurse droid injected his medication into his arm and then allowed her to lead him to the room he shared with Rayden, a man that believed that he was still fighting the Clone Wars.

Daine was surprised to see a second man sitting on one of the other bunks in the room.

Rayden smiled from his bed. "Daine, the generals have seen it fit to assign us another roommate." Rayden gestured to the other man. "Meet Jaymes Ridder. He thinks that Imperials destroyed Alderaan for aiding the Rebellion, aiding in the escape of Jedi and protecting Jedi Spawn."

Daine frowned.

"I was not aware that Organa was protecting Jedi Spawn. I do know that he was guilty of possible Child Abduction though. The former Princess's adoption was illegal to the point that it makes the trafficking illegal Spice look like a minor offense. And the aiding the Rebels was circumstantial"

"Yeah!" Jaymes said. "But you see the princess is the child of a Jedi and Organa has just been providing her with a place to live, food and an education. If he gave the Rebels too much help than the Emperor would have him investigated and he would be caught red handed." Jaymes explained.

Daine nodded. He could see the logic in Jaymes's statement.

"So he made them pay three months ago?" Rayden asked. "No, Tarkin destroyed Alderaan nearly four years ago idiot." Daine said before he could stop himself.

"I'm sorry Rayden, I don't think that you're an idiot. I'm just frustrated."

Jaymes nodded. "I know what you mean, no one believed me when I said that the Jedi were cursed by those that they had promised to help."

_Great, he must be insane._ Daine thought.

"Enough talk," Rayden said. "If we do not go to sleep we will not be prepared for tomorrow."

Daine pulled his blanket around him and fell asleep.

_Somewhere in Leki House . . ._

Kera Ellys frowned as she replayed the conversation between Jaymes Ridder and Daine Jir over and over again. _Maybe I should bring this up to the Director. He might want to call in a Jedi Soul Healer like he did for Miral five years ago._

_Leki House, the next day . . ._

Daine hated meal times with a passion. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't mind sharing his meals with others but Willuf Tyre poked fun at the fact that he served a Sith Lord.

Truth be told, Daine would have runaway long ago if he had a place to go. He even knew of a place where he could slip away unnoticed.

"Well if it isn't the Sith Lord's errand boy." Willuf sneered. "Good day Willuf," Daine said, "and for your information I am not an errand boy." Daine shot back.

Willuf glared at him. "Just be thankful that there are no Jedi here. I hear that they can sense when normal beings are lying."

Daine smiled. "Of course I know that the Jedi can sense lies and the truth. I serve a Sith and they have the same abilities as the Jedi. I've seen men die trying to pry invisible hands off their throats." Daine stepped closer to Willuf. "I heard from the troopers that once he actually strangled a rebel with his hands and he had the rebel dangling nearly a foot off the floor."

Willuf's eyes were wide with fear.

Satisfied that Willuf would allow him to eat in peace he headed to his usual place. _I hope that he doesn't bother me again._

_What an idiot to assume that I wouldn't know that Jedi know when you are telling the-_

"That's it!" he yelled jumping out of his seat and ran out of the mess hall holding a slice of hard bread in one hand.

_Lord Vader can sense truth from lie just like a Jedi! I will go to the Jedi since they are, for some strange reason, still around._

Daine hurried to the place that had discovered and quickly changed into the civilian clothes that he had hidden months ago in the event that he found someone that would believe him.

Daine's hands shook as he disconnected the door's wire's. He unconsciously held his breath as the door slid open. The moment it was open enough to admit him he ran through it.

Daine turned back, the door was closed.

_Now all I have to do is make my way to the Jedi Temple._

Daine quickly but carefully made his way to the Jedi Temple. Finally after what seemed like a lifetime he reached the Temple's steps. He was ascending them when a familiar noise made him stop; it was the sound of a respirator.

Daine turned his head to see a cloaked figure standing nearly in the shadows watching him.

"MiLord?" Daine asked softly.

"Who are you?" the person asked; his voice, a baritone, was slightly muffed. "I am Daine Jir and I have important news for the Jedi."

The man cocked his head to the side.

Daine felt what he knew to be a mental probe.

"I mean you no harm Master Jedi." Daine said softly.

The Jedi reached for his commlink and activated it. "Master Yoda, there is a Human Male named Daine Jir. He says that he has important news for us." "To us bring him. Listen we will."

The Jedi closed the link and then turned to Daine. "Follow me."

_Finally!_ Daine thought. _Someone will hear my story and know that I am telling the truth and no delusional. _


	12. Revelations

Finally the next chapter (it fought back) and in another chapter or two this fic will be done! It's kinda sad, I've been working on OiaL since early March of last year!!!!

But do not fear, I have a few stories in the works and right now I might have a Beta reader for one of them. But if you want to be the Beta reader than you must be familiar with the Landover books by the one and only Terry Brooks. And have a copy of Magic Kingdom for Sale-SOLD! on hand.

_Jedi Temple a few hours later . . ._

Daine almost sighed. He had told the Jedi in the room a good part of his story.

How they had been destroyed, how the Republic had been replaced with an Empire, how he'd served in the Navy under Lord Darth Vader; a Sith Lord, about how the Rebellion fought against the Empire, how the Rebellion had won, and how he had ended up in the past.

He could tell that they didn't believe him.

_I have to find a way to convince them that I am not delusional._

The door slid open behind him.

"You are late." Master Windu told the newcomer.

"Sorry, I was meditating on a dream I had last night." The person said apologetically.

Daine turned to face the newcomer and gaped.

"You're Luke Skywalker!" he blurted. The young man blinked. "Yes I am." He affirmed. "You're the one who destroyed the Death Star!"

Silence fell.

Luke wanted to groan. _Not another one!_

"Told you!" A woman with layered shoulder length brown hair said almost gleefully. "I told you and you didn't believe."

"What have I missed?" Luke asked before adding: "And I didn't destroy this Death Star, in fact if I destroyed this Death Star than dad's a Sith Lord."

"Joke about such things you should not young Skywalker." Yoda said gravely.

"According to him nearly the entire Jedi Order was wiped out some twenty three years ago, the Republic was replaced by an Empire, that there was a rebellion against the Empire." Obi-Wan answered him.

"Okay," Luke said. He felt his guts twisting; it all seemed so familiar; like a half remembered vivid dream.

"Why don't you continue Mister Jir." Obi-Wan said.

"The rebels won and were in the midst of restoring the Republic when a woman approached me and told me that she could fix what had happened. She told me that if I took her to the planet Gastra and used my codes along with my superior's codes than that would allow her to gain access to some artifacts there."

Daine paused for a moment.

"She activated a device with lots of metal rings and it created a portal. I asked her how she was going to change things with a strange portal and she said that she wasn't going to tell me because I would never remember this conversation. She then turned and started to step into it I ran after her and entered the portal at the same time as she did. "

Daine paused again letting everyone absorb the information again.

"The next thing I knew was that I was standing in my shared quarters on the Republic Star Destroyer _Regal_; my roommate asking me when I thought the war was going to end.

"I tried to tell people that I didn't belong and that things weren't right but they didn't believe me. And when I tried to explain things they threw me into a Psych Ward."

"What can you tell us about the Death Star?" Mace asked. "Which one?" Daine asked. "There are more?" the woman with the short hair asked. "There were two but the one Skywalker destroyed was the size of a small moon or 160 kilometers in diameter." "That's the size of a class four moon." The Jedi that he had met outside said. "And it had the necessary firepower to completely destroy planets."

Daine stopped when he saw and noted their shock and horror.

"And the other one?" Luke asked. "The other one was over 900 kilometers in diameter. It also could destroy planets."

"Master Seachan, possible is time travel?" Master Yoda asked a female Ditaal. "It is possible that the woman's actions created an alternate timeline and that we are now living in it." She said thoughtfully.

"Then the things and the bodies we have been finding belong there?" the short haired woman asked. "That would be a logical assumption Knight Solo." Master Windu said.

"Why would anyone want to build stations of that size? I mean what's the point?" Luke asked. "That can wait for awhile young one." Obi-Wan Kenobi said.

"Sir, please wait to continue your story. There are others that must hear it as well." Matser Windu said.

"Anakin, to Telia Building take young Jir you will. Identify he can what we cannot." Master Yoda said.

"Yes Master," Anakin, the Jedi he had mistaken for Lord Vader, said bowing.

"Knight Solo contact the Leki House and let them know that he is with us and that our Healers will like to see all of his records." Master Windu said. "And Knight Skywalker, tell the Healers to gather the things that we have and prepare them for transport."

"Yes Master Windu." they said before they bowed and left.

"Come commander," he said as he turned towards the door.

Daine frowned. _I never told any of them my rank. So how does he know it?_

Daine followed Anakin to a hanger that had all types of transports. An old clone stood by one of them.

"Don't tell: you are the designated driver." _Anakin _said to the clone. "Yes sir, Master Che has decided that you are not to operate any type of vehicle." The clone said. "And don't forget that thing that Master Che says you must where outside of buildings." "I won't, thank you Rex."

_Rex? _Daine shook his head. _There was dozens of old clones in the military, chances are that many had the same nickname._

_Coruscant, The Works, the Telia Building . . ._

Anakin wasn't going to admit but ever since he had laid eyes on Daine Jir he felt as if he knew him and he felt as if he was walking in on Tatooine at night, without the right clothing to protect him from the intense cold.

"Where did you find that All Terrain Assault Transport?" Anakin paused before answering. "It was found on the sixth planet in the Hoth System."

"The Rebels made their base there." Daine said. "Why didn't you bomb the base?" "Admiral Ozzel, for some reason thought that we should bring Death Squadron out of Hyperspace nearly on top of them instead of exiting Lightspeed out of their sensor range then sneak up on them." "And because he didn't follow protocol the rebels had time to raise their shields making an orbital bombardment nearly impossible, if you wanted prisoners." Anakin guessed when Daine paused.

"Yes, Lord Vader was less than pleased. We had to engage the Rebels on the surface. They destroyed two AT-ATs but, in the end, we sent them running."

"What happened to Ozzel after he pulled that stunt?" Anakin asked, with the sinking suspicion that he should know Ozzel's fate." "Lord Vader strangled him with the Force and promoted Captain Firmus Piett to admiral." Daine explained softly.

"What did Needa do then?" Daine blinked. "He, ah, personally apologized to Lord Vader for losing the Millennium Falcon. And well Lord Vader wasn't in a forgiving mood. Which is strange because in the past he had let some people live. Must have been the whole Skywalker business."

"Which Skywalker?" "What?" "Which Skywalker Commander? There are four: myself, my wife Padmé, my daughter Leia and then my son Luke." "We were looking for Luke."

Anakin was silent for a moment.

"Did you catch him?" he asked. "No, but we did catch his friends: Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa. They were tortured to draw him to us. Frankly I didn't understand how he'd know that his friends were in pain." "When a Force Sensitive bonds with beings they can feel their joy, sorrow, pain and death. Jedi Masters have a similar bond with their padawans; they know when their padawan is in trouble and can come to their aid."

"Huh, that's interesting."

"So what happened after they were tortured?" Anakin asked, he had to know whether or not his son had walked into the trap. "He showed up just as Lord Vader predicted, but he wasn't captured. He apparently dueled Lord Vader and lost." Daine explained. "He escaped; the odd thing is that Lord Vader didn't kill Piett afterwards."

_Oh Luke, did you know that it was a trap? _**Of course he did. His desire for revenge was stronger than his desire to rescue his friends. Remind you of anyone?** _Yes, me._ **Skywalkers are so easy to predict. Threaten to injure, injure or sometimes kill their loved ones and they will stop at nothing to get to you.**

_I have a question for you. _**What? **_Who are you?_ **Why Ani, you already know.** _You-_

"Is there anything that you haven't been able to identify?"

Anakin nearly jumped at the sound of Daine's voice. "Just parts of ships and bodies." Anakin answered. "Maybe I could identify the parts or identify where the bodies came from." Daine said. "Follow me."

_The Telia Building, elsewhere . . ._

Mik Jerrison sighed as he put the shard of a star ship's hull back into it's crate. _Why does it seem so familiar but yet so foreign? _

He heard the door slid open but he didn't turn to see who it was.

"Mik, what are you doing? We have a lunch date." He turned to see his wife, Charly, standing just inside of the room. "Sorry Sweetheart but there was this one piece that looked familiar so I decided that I was going to have another look at it; just to see if it rang any more bells."

Charly smiled. "You could never let a mystery go." "Could Sweetheart?" he asked playfully as he closed the crate and put it back where it belonged. "You know what I mean." Her was playful but there was something to it.

She looped her right arm around his chest.

"Come my knight in shining armor or we might lose our reservation."

As they left the Mik thought that he heard something hit the ground but when he turned to look he didn't see anything. _Someone must have knocked something over in one of the rooms. _He told himself.

_The Telia Building, a few hours later . . ._

Anakin felt numb.

The remains that had been in the AT-AT were mostly clones and all of the clones had a very familiar legion markings on their armor, and according to Daine Jir they were known far and wide as Vader's Fist; he knew them as something better: the 501st.

He twisted a badge from one of them in his hands in an effort to relieve his feelings of betrayal.

_They were going to kill me! _**No they weren't.**

"We should be heading to the Senate Offices, they should be ready for us about now." Anakin said softly as they walked they walked away from the cold storage rooms; wondering why his inner voice said that.

**They will never betray me.** _No they wouldn't._

"How receptive will they be?" Daine asked. "With what you have had to say to us they should be pretty open to it. But don't get your hopes too high." Anakin replied. "Believe I won't, too many people haven't believed me. So just because I have the backing of the Jedi doesn't mean anything until I convince the others." "Darn straight." Anakin said.

"If you were a little taller and less talkative you could almost be . . . ." Daine trailed off, unable to complete his sentence, Anakin was almost grateful that he had.

After a few minutes of walking Anakin's foot hit something and sent it sliding across the floor and into the wall.

"_As you can see three Star Destroyers are either disabled and/or drifting."_

Anakin turned his head and found that he had kicked a data/holo disk player.

He used the Force to call it to him.

"_As you can see the _Devastator _appears to be completely disabled. The _Conquest _and the _Star Sword _appear to have some power and-"_ Anakin watched as the two drifting Star Destroyers collided with each other and then vanish in a huge fireball. _"The _Conquest _and _Star Sword_ are gone! I repeat: the _Conquest _and _Star Sword_ are gone!"_ The image dissolved and a Twi'lek male appeared. "_It is my sad duty to report that even though the Empire has been overthrown the dead count is tremendous. A total of six Imperial class Star Destroyers were destroyed along with seven Victory class and one Super class. The number of destroyed Rebel Capital ships is six. At this point in time almost all the Rebels are accounted for and it is still unknown how many Imperial troops and officers have fallen but it is feared that the count reaches well into the hundred thousands. Our hearts go out to all of those who's loved ones are numbered among the dead and missing."_

"That's not mine." Daine said as Anakin turned the player off.

"We must get to the Senate Offices now." Anakin said as he retrieved his commlink. "Rex, I need you to have the speeder ready to go for us. There's something everyone needs to see."


	13. I know

Sorry that this took me awhile. My wireless optical mouse apparently died, went to the big cheese wheel in the sky and became a real mouse. And the PEN drive that I store a good part of my fics, including OiaL was threating to break on me. So I had to replace them.

I do have a beta reader for my next long fic so there will be fewer mistakes in it.

I know that in the last chapter Commander Jir referred to Leia as Princess and in this chapter he refers to her as Senator, it was a mistake on my part and because where Daine is from she isn't a princess anymore so I corrected the mistake so he calls her 'senator' ever though there is no longer a Senate to avoid calling her 'princess'.

_The Senate Offices . . ._

"There is no such thing as time travel!" Bail Organa snapped.

"Then how do you explain this?" A Jedi Healer asked. Everyone watched as she carefully reached into a cooler and a human hand. "This hand belongs to a human male, his genome does not contain the genes that would allow his hand to be regrown. It was severed by a lightsaber with artificial crystals at the age of twenty-two standard years of age. It was holding a lightsaber that is identical to another Jedi's lightsaber."

She set the hand down on the table and retrieved the lightsaber from another box. Everyone in the room recognized the lightsaber immediately.

"That hand is that of Luke Skywalker. The lightsaber is his father's."

"But I have never used my father's lightsaber and I still have two flesh hands." Luke said softly.

"You lost it in a duel with Lord Vader." Daine Jir said simply.

"I fought a Sith Lord?" Luke demanded.

"A crippled Sith Lord, but a Sith Lord all the same." Daine replied.

"Luke would take on a perfectly healthy, fully fledged Sith Lord without a second thought. Never mind the fact that he has never met anyone one that has wanted to killed him." Leia said.

"Why don't you start at the beginning." Padmé told Daine.

"Well the Jedi failed to deal with Palpatine and he ordered the clones to turn on their Jedi leaders and Lord Vader lead the 501st on the Temple. It had a 99.99 percent success rate and pretty soon many of the survivors were killed as well when they tried to take on Lord Vader or when they tried to enter certain branches of the Empire; they failed because we were looking for someone of their particular expertise with burn scars that would never heal or certain limbs missing that could've only been taken off by a lightsaber."

"Foolish." Obi-Wan said angrily as he shook his head.

"Misguided they were." Yoda said. "Destroy the Sith they thought they could. Paid with their lives they did."

"Please continue." Padmé said. She wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Well Palpatine made the Republic into an Empire and for a long time there was very little resistance to his rule. Those that did were made examples of: like the man that claimed to be a Jedi and tried to lead a resistance that ended in the deaths of hundreds of people on Bellassa, Coruscant and several other places before Bail Organa turned him in after he tried to abduct the Organa's Ward. He was executed for impersonating as a Jedi, murdering Imperial citizens and attempted kidnapping."

"What Jedi was he impersonating and are you sure that he wasn't a Jedi?" Mace asked. "Lord Vader was sure that he was not a Jedi because the Jedi he said was not that tall and there was something else that I cannot remember. He said that his name was Ferus Olin." Daine explained

"Ferus Olin disappeared during the early days of the Clone Wars on Bellassa, he disappeared without a trace except that his master could no longer sense him in the Force. He was written down as missing in action; within a year he was moved to the assumed killed in action list." Mace said. "Later we found the remains of his transport along with the bodies of the Clones with him. We assumed that he tried to walk back to the Republic's Base and died en route."

"Are you sure that the man was indeed not Ferus Olin?" Obi-Wan asked. "Yes," Daine answered, "a DNA test was done before the trial and it was discovered that he was not Ferus Olin but he was a man by the name of Lye Harygre; an extremist."

"Surely the people would have stood against all of this." Mon Mothma said.

"Why would they?" Anakin asked, breaking his silence, his voice oddly flat; with a vague hint of derision. "They allowed their freedoms to be stripped from them and those that represented them either didn't care, were too afraid to do anything or were too few in number to stop it."

Isolder nodded.

"At that time your citizens did not care about their freedoms, they were concerned only about their safety."

"I . . . dislike politicians. Leia said softly. "The only way you could get me to interact with them is if something can be benefited from it."

"Leia!" Padmé said softly.

"Sorry,' Leia said, dropping her gazed.

"Who's this 'Lord Vader'?" Bail asked.

"Lord Darth Vader is a Dark Lord of the Sith. No doubt a fallen Jedi apprenticed to Lord Sidious." Anakin's voice was soft, almost detached with a vague hint of fear.

"There are, or were rumors that Lord Vader was a former Jedi. But there wasn't any solid proof to support it."

"What did he look like?" Isolder asked.

Daine shifted in his seat. "Lord Vader was severely injured and burned shortly after the Jedi Temple was purged. Apparently the Jedi that he crossed blades with decided to walk away and leave the deed half completed."

Everyone shivered at the memory of the damaged organs and bones that belonged to Anakin Skywalker; how the evidence pointed to the fact that he had been burned alive and the hologram that Anakin had redesigned to show himself a mere shell of his former self.

"_I hate you!"_ The words rang in Obi-Wan's head and ripped at his conscience.

"He wore a mobile life support suit that covered everything and breathed with the aid of a respirator."

Daine fiddled with the data/holo disk player and a minute later an image hovered over the device.

"That is Lord Vader." Daine said.

Bail and Mon slid back in their seats; fear was evident on their faces.

"The mask resembles the faceplates of ancient Sith war droids." Mace said. "Strike fear in hearts is the mask's purpose." Yoda said.

"There is only so far that fear will carry someone." Anakin said simply.

"Is there any audio?" Luke asked.

Daine hesitated before he set the recording at the beginning and turned the audio on.

"_There is no doubt that Lye Harygre is not Ferus Olin. Olin was 1.69 meters in height. This man, Lye Harygre is 1.80 meters. Another thing: Olin was not –_ a mechanic." Anakin said with the recording. _"DNA has only given the proof to what was already known."_

Daine turned off the player.

"That was Lord Vader."

Obi-Wan looked as if he was going into shock.

"Master?" Anakin said.

"How did he survive that?" Obi-Wan said softly.

"What?"

"He survived the fire?" Obi-Wan softly.

"Yes." Daine said.

For five minutes there was complete silence in the room. The only thing was heard was Anakin's deeper than normal breaths, which sounded nearly as loud and harsh as Vader's breathing in the silence.

"Please continue." Mon said, breaking the silence first.

"Well after the Empire had been around for about fifteen years then different rebellious factions started to band together. Nineteen years later they moved from a small nuisance to a viable threat. At this time a weapon that had been under construction since before the Republic became the Empire was completed. It was 160 kilometers in diameter and had the necessary firepower to completely destroy planets and decimate the entire system. It was called the Death Star"

Daine paused to allow those that did not already know about the Death Star wrap the concept around their minds.

"Before it was ready the plans were stolen by Rebel spies and handed over to Organa's Ward; a young woman named Leia. She was serving as a senator and she couldn't keep her mouth shut. She nearly insulted Vader by trying to declare her innocence when it was a recorded fact that she had been told to leave the site of a battle, opened fire on a Imperial cruiser when they as her to stop, her men opened fire on Imperial trooper when they forced their way onto her ship and then she had the audacity to accuse Lord Vader of breaking Imperial Law."

"Sounds like Leia." Han said as he came into the room.

Daine jumped and turned around.

"Aren't you Han Solo?" he asked. "Yes I am." Han said as he took a seat.

Daine frowned a bit.

"You're supposed to be frozen in carbonite."

The whole Skywalker family burst into laughter.

"My father-in-law did say that if he caught me kissing his daughter before he was ready to accept the fact that she was dating me and if I ever broke her heart that he'd freeze me in carbonite and give me to one of the Hutts as a gift." Han said smiling.

Daine shifted in his chair.

"Well anyway she said that she didn't know anything when she had actually hidden the stolen plans in a droid and then dispatched it along with another one to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi that had been hiding ever since the Jedi were killed.

"If my memory serves me correctly the droids were picked up by scavengers and then sold to farmers. The droid with the plans left that night in an attempt to find the Jedi and the farmer's nephew Luke Skywalker gave chase.

"While that was happening Imperial troops traced the droids to the scavengers and then to the farmers. They were tortured for information about the droids and learned that one: the droids weren't there and two: they said something about their nephew was taking them to get their memories wiped and three: he said something about a recording and something about an Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"What planet was Obi-Wan hiding on?" Mace asked. "Tatooine." Daine answered.

Anakin and Padmé looked at each other. "Owen and Beru!" They said in unison.

Anakin had never been close to his step brother but he had sent him a letter so that they would know the truth of certain things and to let him know that he had a step niece and nephew. They visited Owen and Beru when Luke and Leia when seven and Padmé kept a correspondence with Beru.

"The farmers were killed." Daine said softly. "There was the possibility that they were holding back information and there were orders to keep the Death Star a secret."

Padmé left her chair stood next Anakin who pulled her into an embrace.

"Well Senator Leia was taken to the Death Star and the Imperial Senate was disbanded. On the Death Star she was given a mind alternating hallucinogen then told that she was in great pain, which she believed. However she didn't break.

"Governor Tarkin was annoyed that Lord Vader hadn't gotten any results so he decided that they were going to use Alderaan as a bargaining chip.

"Lord Vader told him it wouldn't work. Governor Tarkin told him to, well to figuratively shut up and that he knew what he was doing.

"Well he had the Death Star go to Alderaan and he told her that he wouldn't test the Death Star's power on Alderaan if she gave him the Rebel Base. She told him that the Rebels were on Dantooine. He had Alderaan destroyed anyway because Dantooine was too remote for those that were considering rebelling. "

"Foolish Tarkin." Anakin said softly. "Fear will carry only so far before people are either tired of being afraid or you enrage them."

"So that's what happened to Alderaan." Obi-Wan said softly.

Bail slumped. He couldn't believe that his home world had been blown to pieces as a demonstration of what happened to dissenters.

"Well Kenobi and Skywalker joined up with Solo and they tried to meet with Bail Organa, who was a leading member of the Rebellion but their ship was tractored onto the Death Star and they hid in some smuggling compartments then slipped out; Skywalker and Solo both disguised as stormtroopers.

"At this time Senator Leia was going to be executed but Lord Vader convinced Governor Tarkin to wait because their was the possibility that she would be rescued then they would lead us to the rebel Base.

"She was rescued and Obi-Wan Kenobi met his end by Lord Vader's hand. Shortly afterwards they took the Senator to the Rebels on Yavin Four and the Death Star followed by the way of a homing beacon. Luke there destroyed it by firing two photon torpedoes into the exhaust port that led to something else that led to the Main Reactor.

"Of course at the time we didn't know the identity of the rebel that destroyed the Death Star and one of the first things that Lord Vader wanted to know upon his return was the identity of the pilot that had fired the fateful shot.

"When we discovered that his name was Luke Skywalker Lord Vader became obsessed with finding him. I heard him say that he had to know."

"We chased the Rebels everywhere.

"We found them on the sixth planet of the Hoth system three years after the destruction of the Death Star and because of a strategy error the admiral made we were forced to engage in a ground assault."

"Idiot!" Luke said off handily.

"Yes, idiot." Daine agreed.

"The attack was partially successful; we captured three of their ships and they lost a base.

"Well Solo's ship hadn't jumped to Hyperspace so Lord Vader ordered us to catch them. Solo flew into an asteroid field and Lord Vader ordered us to follow them in.

"We found them but they escaped us and Lord Vader hired bounty hunters to find them.

"One of the bounty hunters found them and reported back. We arrived at their destination before them and set a trap.

"Solo was tortured, frozen in carbonite then turned over to the bounty hunter that had led us to them.

"Luke Skywalker showed up as Lord Vader predicted; they dueled and Skywalker lost his hand.

"A year later the emperor set a trap for the Rebellion over the forest moon of Endor where the second Death Star was under construction. The Rebels defeated the Empire that day and both the emperor and Lord Vader died."

Daine paused so that he could say what he was told had happened.

"I was told that Anakin Skywalker killed both the emperor and Lord Vader. I said that it was impossible because Anakin Skywalker had died either the night the Jedi Temple fell or the next morning."

Daine paused for a moment before he continued,

"A week later a woman approached me. She told me that there was a way to restore things to how they were. She told that if I brought her to the planet Gastra then she would.

"I was skeptical but I had just lost a lot of friends and I figured that it couldn't hurt if I did as she asked.

"I was wrong." Daine said softly.

"Once I entered the codes that would allow us access to the artifacts stored there she headed for a particular artifact with several rings and activated it and it created a portal. I asked her how that artifact was going to change anything. She said that she wasn't going to tell me because I would have no memory of the conversation.

"I ran from where I was in an attempt to stop her only to step into with her.

"Then I realized that I wasn't on Gastra but on a star ship. Then a voice that I hadn't heard in years asked me when I thought the war was going to end. It was then that I realized that I was on the Republic Cruiser _Regal_ in the quarters I shared with Harrison Fjord."

Daine sighed wearily.

"I tried to tell people that I was from the future but no one believed me and it didn't help that I was the same age I was when the Clone Wars ended and had no proof that I had time traveled.

"I was placed in the Leki House because my parents decided that it was the best choice.

"Earlier today I realized that the Jedi, like the Sith could detect when you were lying or telling the truth. So I escaped and made my way to the Jedi Temple and told them what happened. And now I'm here telling the rest of you." Daine finished.

"Is there any other proof?" Mon asked.

Anakin pulled out his commlink. "Rex, please come in." "Yes sir." Rex responded.

A few minutes later Rex walked into the room.

"You wanted to see me?"

Anakin reached into one of the pouches on his belt and retrieved the badge and held it out for Rex to take.

"Would my mind telling everyone in the room which legion that badge belongs to?" Anakin asked.

Rex examined the badge for a minute before answering: "The trooper this belongs to is in the 501st sir. However I don't recognize which branch or the insignia."

Silence fell again as Rex returned the badge to Anakin.

"I am curious, what else is on that data disk?" Isolder said.

Everyone nodded.

Daine leaned over and activated the player.

_A few hours later . . ._

The disk had mostly the battle at Endor, but it did have some random pieces from all over.

"That was a waste of time." Leia said.

"Learned much we did." Yoda said.

No one could dispute what Yoda had to say. They had learned a few thing.

"Anakin, aren't you tired of standing?" Obi-Wan asked after seeing that Anakin was still standing nearly in the same stop that he was when he had arrived. "No, and I rather stand." Anakin said.

"My question is who the other time traveler is and why she traveled back in the first place" Padmé said.

"It had to be someone that knew that Gastra was where that device was." Daine said.

"And what it did and how to work it." Luke added.

**I wonder, **_why she changed the past. _**Moff Jerjerrord seems to be truly trying to finish the station on time. **_Was she trying to prevent the massive loss of life?. _**Admiral Jerrison **_met his wife at The _**Recognition of the Brightest Stars Gala. **

Anakin frowned. His thoughts were a mixture of his and someone else's.

"Possibly a widow." Mon said.

"And she'd know what some of the things we found are." Leia added.

"But there were over ten thousand widows." Obi-Wan said slowly.

Anakin's head shot up. _It all makes sense now!_

"It will take us a long-" "Masters, I know we are looking for." Anakin said, cutting Obi-Wan off.

"I know who she is."

Any guesses?


	14. Revealed

Hey everyone!

I've been back from my vacation to D. C. and Virginia for a few days and I posted two fics 'Heed my words'. And 'Remembrance Day.' they can be found on Before the Saga and Beyond the Saga in that order.

Here we learn the identity of the time traveler.

_The Senate Offices an hour later. . ._

Obi-Wan frowned as Anakin called Captains Maxmillian Veers and Firmus Piett followed by Admiral Mik Jerrison to the office.

They entered at the same time as the Jedi healer left.

"Admirals, General I am going to ask you a strange question for you: do you feel as if you should know this man?" Anakin asked gesturing to Daine.

Veers and Piett shared a curious and concerned look before focusing their attention on the man.

"Maybe." Mik said slowly.

"He looks familiar." Piett said.

"Yes, I do feel as if I should know him." Veers answered.

"Sir, why is this of any importance?" Mik asked.

The Jedi locked eyes for a moment before nodding.

"Because you should know him, admiral." Anakin said simply.

"But I have never seen him before." Mik said.

"His name is Daine Jir, rank: commander." Anakin continued. "He served with all of you and others; Prajj, Ozzel and others."

"I'm afraid that I don't understand sir." Piett said.

"You will in a mo-"

The door slid opened to reveal Charly Deacon Jerrison.

She glanced at everyone in the room, her eyes resting briefly on her husband, then she took a seat.

"How may I be of service Master Skywalker?" she asked.

"I have a few questions for you Lady Jerrison; it is possible to travel through time?" Anakin asked. "In theory it is possible for someone to time travel sir." She answered.

"Do you know this man?" Anakin pointed at Daine. "No, I don't remember ever seeing him before sir." She answered.

Anakin frowned for a moment, doubt appeared on his face.

"Where and how did you fist meet your husband?"

Charly looked puzzled.

"I met him and the night club The Senator and the Jedi. He was sitting by himself so I asked if I could join him. I enjoyed our conversation so much that I gave him my comm number and datapad address."

Doubt vanished from Anakin's face faster than water evaporates on Tatooine.

"It's the truth sir." Mik said.

Anakin used the Force to float the player onto the table, Charly's eyes widened with shocked fear, and used the Force to turn it on.

_An Alderaanian waltz played in a ballroom of some type and species milled about chattering in several languages. In a corner a young woman recognizable as Charly stood; watching everyone have fun. _

"_Hello, would you like to dance?" A younger Mik Jerrison asked her. She looked as if she was going to refuse but she smiled weakly and nodded._

The player suddenly jumped to the destruction of the _Conquest _and _Star Sword_.

Charly turned away from the player, tears filling her eyes.

Anakin deactivated the player.

"Someone, a woman, traveled back in time by using a device on a planet called Gastra with the help of Commander Daine Jir." Anakin told her.

"This belongs to you." He finished.

She nodded

"You dropped it in the Telia Building."

"I must have." She whispered

"The only question is why?" Mace said.

"Why? My husband was dead! Billions were dead! I knew how to do something so I did."

Mik stared at his wife.

"Besides the Jedi were dead and now they're alive."

**The Jedi were blind ****but it wasn't entirely their fault.** _The Jedi Council left themselves open so that they could draw Sidious out and _**it fail-**_succeeded. _

"The Jedi-" Anakin trailed off.

He felt disconnected, as if he was completely cut off from everyone in the room; emotionally and physically.

"Is the time travel responsible for the odd happenings?" Padmé asked.

"It must be if you found one of the Empire's war machines-" "An All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT." Daine said, interrupting her.

"How do you know that?" Charly asked.

"I know because I served in the Imperial Navy and I am the one that brought you to Gastra.' Daine explained.

"Oh," she whispered.

"Then he has already told you what has happened." Charly said.

"But the time line shows signs of stabilizing." she said hopefully.

Anakin nearly laughed.

_I hear a voice that tells me that I am 'gone' and that my wife is dead. Is that Stable?_

**Kenobi might say that I lost my sanity long ago. ****I miss his humorous jabs.**

Anakin shook the sad thought from his mind. It was true that he missed Obi-Wans playful jabs but this wasn't the time for such things.

In fact he sensed something dangerous coming.

"I don't understand why-"

Anakin's gaze suddenly went to the window.

"DUCK!" He yelled.

Everyone leaped for cover as the window shattered, sending shards of transparisteel flying into the room.

Several voices cried out in pain as the shards of transparisteel sliced into them.

"What was that?" Han demanded.

"A speeder accident," Anakin answered flatly. "It happened ten floors down."

"Is there a chance that this time line will stabilize?" Padmé asked.

"We won't know for sure for another two months." Charly answered.

Anakin stared at his left hand.

It had been cut by some flying transparisteel, but there was only a little blood.

His intestines twisted when he saw the reason why: instead of bone he saw metal.

Shocked? Knew all along?


	15. Falling Apart

_Naboo, two months later . . ._

Anakin was miserable.

Usually Naboo lifted his spirits, but ever since that fateful day two months ago he found that he was always at a loose end.

Ever since he became nearly unable to decipher his thoughts from the other voice.

Ever since the cuts on his left hand revealed metal where bone should be. He kept the hand covered in bacta patches to hide the metal, to help with the constant pain and to hopefully heal the skin that frequently tore.

He hadn't brought it to the Healers attention because he was sick and tired of visiting the Halls of Healing and being asked pointless questions. However if his flesh started to die then he'd show his hand to a Healer.

**Weak, I've got to be strong.**

**He does not know what he's talking about. I cannot go back!**

Tears ran down his face.

**I can't.**

"Anakin, what's wrong?" Padmé asked.

Anakin shook his head.

"I don't know Angel." he responded.

Two months ago Charly Jerrison had suggested that they wait for two months before they decided whether or not undo what she had done.

She had said that things would either balance out or collapse like a piece of flimsiplast in the rain.

So they were playing a waiting game.

Meanwhile nightmarish dreams plagued the Force Sensitive Skywalker's sleep. Anakin's dreams were dark and pain filled, some nights Luke would jolt out of a deep sleep gasping and Leia dreamed about not knowing how to use the Force.

Padmé had suggested that they go to Naboo and to try to forget everything for the two months.

Luke had opted to spend the time with a friend of his and Leia and Han were going to as many places they had talked about going and doing things together. But Rex demanded to come.

"_Master Skywalker, there's so many of them. What are we going to do?"_

_Snap-hiss_

Anakin jerked his head up.

The strange memory ending just as abruptly as it began.

**One would have thought that the Jedi would have taught their young students not to be afraid.** _They were just children though._

Anakin shook his head.

It wasn't the first time that a foreign memory had suddenly came to him and he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last.

**I'm tired, tired of living. Tired of fighting. It's time for someone else to take my place.**

_I'm tired of waiting for something to happen._

**This is the only way for you to live: kill me and take my place.**

Anakin's head came up.

**Why does it hurt so much to hear you say that? I know that I have been dead for a long time.**

**I wish things could be different but I can't change what I have done.**

Crushing sorrow descended on Anakin and he felt tears of pained sorrow race down his cheeks.

**I am Lord Vader; not that weak, foolish, idealistic young Jedi that I was twenty-three years ago.**

Anakin frowned.

_I'm hearing Darth Vader?_

_He used to be a Jedi?_

**Yes, years ago I was once a Jedi Knight. I'm surprised that you don't remember.**

"Anakin?" Padmé's voice came from somewhere far away.

_Someone time traveled so I don't remember anymore. But things have happened and we might need someone to travel back and set it right. And then I'll remember._

**Foolish Jedi! You'll be gone and she'll be dead.**

Pain suddenly flashed in his left hand and brought him back to Naboo.

"Anakin are you alright?" Padmé's voice was filled with concern.

"I'm fine Angel." Anakin answered and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. "Perfectly fine."

"And I'm a Hutt's uncle." Rex muttered.

_Coruscant, Jedi Temple . . ._

Obi-Wan paced Yoda's chambers nervous beyond belief.

_He's going to get himself killed! Those that have turned to the Dark Side are lost forever._

_Doesn't he realize that he's the galaxy's last hope?_ Obi-Wan wondered bleakly.

"Wear a hole in the floor you will if stop you do not." Yoda told him sternly.

Mace Windu nodded in agreement.

"Someone made a foolish decision after I warned them not to." Obi-Wan explained.

His commlink chirped, saving him from having to elaborate further, and he reached for it.

"Kenobi."

"Obi-Wan, it Padmé. Something is wrong with Anakin." Padmé blurted.

"What exactly is wrong with him?" Obi-Wan asked.

"He spent the last two hours either crying or staring out into space. He says that nothing is wrong but I know that something is bothering him." Her voice said that there was more.

"And?" he prompted.

"He keeps muttering that I'm dead. And that he can't go back." She explained.

Obi-Wan's instincts told him one thing and one thing only: they had to get to Gastra. He could see it Yoda and Mace's eyes as well.

"Padmé take Anakin to Gastra, I'll get everyone else."

_Roof of the Jedi Temple . . ._

Luke and Jada sat together on the Jedi Temple's roof watching the sun set.

Both feared the possibility that someone would have to travel back and let the events that unfolded that night unfold as they were suppose to.

Luke feared it because he didn't want to be raised by virtual strangers, separated from his twin, his mother dead and his father . . . only the Force knew where his father was.

Jada feared it because she kept hearing a voice telling her to assassinate certain criminals and that she'd never get the opportunity to ask her mother who her father was.

She wished that she felt comfortable telling Luke that her real name was Mara Jade "Jada" Kryze, daughter of Satine Kryze. Or to tell him that she had hacked into the personal files of six criminals and then sent the incriminating information to dozens of security groups and to Chancellor Mon Mothma's office as well.

She shivered as the sun began to disappear behind the the horizon.

She had a feeling that soon they would have no choice but to send someone back.

_Naboo . . ._

A few minutes ago Leia had hoped that she and Han could spend the remaining days with her parents only to find Anakin in a deep depression and Padmé with the news that they needed to go to Gastra.

He didn't seem to recognize her either

The hardest part was that his eyes had no light in them; it was as if he was dead but somehow still alive.

_No, more like someone trapped in the Living World. _She thought grimly.

Now she helped her mother pack.

"I wish . . . I wish he'll come out of it." Padmé whispered as she folded Anakin's cloak.

"Has something similar ever happened?" Leia asked curious.

"Maybe." Padmé answered.

Leia reached out to touch her mother's hand and found the suitcase instead.

"It will be alright mom." she said softly.

Leia glanced down and gasped.

Her hand was in her mother's hand.

"We need to leave as soon as possible and I'll pilot the ship." Leia said as dread welled up inside of her.


	16. What must be done

_Gastra . . ._

Luke carefully maneuvered the ship carrying Masters Yoda, Mace and Obi-Wan, Chancellor Mothma, Admiral Jerrison, Captains Veers, Piett and Needa, Senator Organa, Commander Jir, Lady Jerrison, Prince Isolder and Padawan Jada Mare into the Docking Bay.

It was a large bay with plenty of room for more ships.

There was only one ship in it though and it happened to belong to Padmé Skywalker.

Luke noticed that Leia and Han were waiting for them at far end of the hanger.

He carefully set the ship down and opened the hatch.

All of the passengers disembarked and Obi-Wan headed across the hanger to met them.

"Dad and mom found a conference room where we can discuss things." Leia said softly, her voice shook slightly.

They followed them down a hallway into the afore mention conference room. Padmé sat in a chair in the middle of the table, Rex and Anakin stood next to her.

At least Luke hoped that the tall, imposing figure in the black cloak, breathing with the aid of a mobile respirator was was his father.

For some reason it no longer felt wrong; it felt right to associate the sound with his father but wrong to see him in a cloak.

He could tell that Leia felt the same way he did.

Daine Jir paused in the doorway and glanced around; it was not a worried glance but a curious one.

Piett, Needa and both Jerrisons paused also; nervous and vaguely attentive; as if they were expecting to receive orders.

Obi-Wan's hand hovered near his lightsaber, as if he expected to use it in the near future.

Bail and Mon went rigid with fear.

Isolder seemed to be completely unaffected to the sound of the respirator. But Luke could feel his unease at the sound.

"It's just Master Skywalker's respirator." Ahsoka said dismissively, although her voice held a hint of fear. She looked as if she was ready to either reach for her lightsaber or to bolt from the room

"Yeah, no need to get all jumpy." Jada said, her voice held a note of concern but her posture respectful

_Of course, the respirator!_ Luke thought. _Their sub conscience thinks that it's Darth Vader breathing._

Everyone quickly found seats and they all sat, except for Anakin and Rex, then turned to face Master Yoda; knowing that he would open the discussion

"Troubled I am about the outcome between the Jedi and Sith. Fear I do for the last of the Jedi." Yoda said after nearly a minute of silence.

"Excuse me?" Mon Mothma asked.

"Failed to stop the Sith we did. Fall the Temple did. Lost many lives were." Yoda said sadly. "Know this through strange memories. Trained I did another apprentice, facing the Sith he chose, hope to help someone he plans." Yoda explained.

"I don't understand how the Jedi could have failed." Bail said.

"Misstepped we did. Our downfall it was. Destroyed the Jedi Order the Sith did. From the Masters to the Younglings."

Silence fell

"Experience like this have you?" Yoda suddenly asked everyone.

"I fear for someone's life and fear that they will either die or join the Sith." Obi-Wan said. "They've got in their head that they can help someone that is forever lost."

"At times I feel nothing, as if I am no longer alive." Mace said.

Bail Organa shrugged, Isolder shook his head as well as Lorth Needa, Mik Jerrison, Maxmillian Veers and Firmus Piett.

Jada shifted in her seat. "I . . . I feel compelled to either brake into certain beings homes and find incriminating information about them and to assassinate others." Jada said softly not making eye contact with anyone.

"I used to find myself wondering who spoke the truth and now I am determined to help someone." Luke said and left it at that. He didn't want anyone to know about the nightmares he had about losing his hand and Vader's voice telling him 'no, _I _am'.

"I dream about being ignorant about the Force." Leia said. "It's frightening to be powerless."

"All I dreamed about recently was that someone was trying to feed Luke, a wookiee and me to a snarlacc." Han said with a shrug.

"I know that I am not a mother but I know that I am supposed to be one and sometimes I find myself searching for Asha, Ptera, Rayn and Anakin. That _Rekindled Dream_ is the name of my ship." Ahsoka paused for a moment, "oh Tesel, why did you have to speak out?" She whispered sadly.

"I dream about traveling the galaxy and I have an old data pad that I know belongs to my com-Master Skywalker and I am to give it to his son Luke if he dies." Rex said.

Padmé sighed.

"I have not experienced anything like that but only a few hours ago Leia put her hand through mine." She explained

"But I have observed Anakin and he has behaved oddly. He mutters to himself and he has acted almost fearful on more than one occasion." She continued

They all turned to Anakin.

"Sometimes I feel as if I should be afraid of someone, he has punished me before for displeasing him on more than once." Anakin said in a near whisper. "And I fear his wrath above all else."

Anakin then hesitated and began to remove the bacta patches from his hand.

Everyone gasped at the sight of the metal surrounded by flesh.

"May I ask what happened to your hand?" Obi-Wan asked.

"You remember the speeder accident two months ago? Well some transparisteel cut my hand and it has been like this ever since. The skin sometimes tears but the flesh hasn't started to die. I didn't show it to a Healer because I didn't want to spend anymore time in the Halls of Healing." Anakin explained.

"Anything else?" Obi-Wan asked

"I hear a voice. It told me how Admiral Jerrison really met his wife, told me that Padmé was dead and that . . . that I am 'gone'." Anakin said is a near whisper.

"Has it explained what it meant by gone?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin shook his head.

"It told me a short time ago that when we put everything right Padmé will be dead and I will be gone." Anakin responded.

Charly Jerrison gave a melancholy sigh.

_This is what I was hoping never to hear. _She thought sadly

"The time line has been slowly breaking apart. It might be speeding up.

"We will have to send someone back to stop me." She said bluntly.

"To get into the room with the device we need high clearance codes." Daine Jir explained. "Not just anyone can get in there.

"I would get you in there but I doubt that the codes I used last time will work here." Daine continued.

Everyone turned to Mon Mothma.

"I did not know this place existed until two months ago. I doubt that my codes will work here.." she responded.

"Daine, how old is this facility?" Padmé asked.

"It was secretly built either just before or during the Clone Wars. I believe Em- Chancellor Palpatine ordered the facility's construction." Daine responded.

"If it was built secretly than that would explain our lack of knowledge of this place." Luke said.

"If it was built secretly then how did Lady Jerrison and you know about it commander?" Bail asked.

"Many of these devices are here because they were found on planets once inhabited by advanced civilizations. I was part of a group invited to study them and theorize what they did.

"It was there that I realized that this device could create a hole in the fabric of time and space allowing someone or someones travel back in time.

"I kept the knowledge to myself and told the supervisor that I thought that it was a testing device of some type." Charly explained.

"We stopped in orbit of Gastra to relieve the troops stationed there once and Lord Vader told me of Gastra's purpose." Daine said.

"If it was built during the Clone Wars then maybe the Jedi Master's old codes will work. And if that doesn't work than someone can try hot wiring the door." Han suggested.

Everyone was silent, processing Han's suggestion.

"Work it will." Yoda said suddenly. "Take us to the room you will."

Daine stood.

"This way."

He led them through winding corridors to a large door with a keypad next to it.

Yoda typed his highest code in first, the keypad beeped a negative.

Mace tried but got the same results as Yoda.

'Anakin, why don't you try next." Obi-Wan suggested.

He had the oddest feeling that Anakin's codes would work just fine."

Anakin hesitated for a second before punching in his highest code into the keypad: his marriage date.

He hesitated again before pressing the 'enter' button.

To their surprise the door slid open without a protest.

"He must have removed most of the Council's high clearance codes in preparation for the destruction of the Order." Jada surmised.

The room had several strange devices in it, some were small, others were quite large. But one thing was clear: the room was meant to hold a lot more.

"There it is." Charly said pointing at an object sitting on a low platform with three large rings.

They all gathered around it.

Everyone was silent for a moment before Ahsoka asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Who are we going to send back?" she asked, curious.

We will be learning who are the lucky time travelers next time. Feel free to say who YOU think it should be in your comment or simply send it to me.


	17. The End in the Beginning

Second to last chapter (unless the Muse Strikes Back)!

I am writing Rescue at Bakura. It's an AU of Truce at Bakura. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Silence fell.

Everyone turned towards Charly Jerrison, hoping that she held the answer.

"I myself would travel back, but only one person that has used it before may use it again."

"What does that got to do with anything?" Bail asked.

"Someone needs to stop Commander Jir. It will take too long to hunt down an old crew member that Daine is familiar with and get them here. So we send him back without his memories and everything is fine on that front." She explained.

"I planted the bomb just below the Chancellor's office and detonated it shortly after the strange lighting stopped

"A list we need of people that we can send." Yoda said.

"The Skywalkers are not an option, Anakin was there and Padmé was pregnant with Luke and Leia. Young Mare wasn't born. Obi-Wan and I can't stop her either. Knight Tano was lost on Myrkr for several months so she's out." Mace paused, thinking.

"Master Windu, I could stop her." Captain Needa said. "I was still on Coruscant when Master Kenobi went to face General Grievous."

"It might work." Anakin said thoughtfully.

"Or we could send someone or several people back and stop her from traveling back in the first place." Ahsoka suggested.

Silence.

"It might work." Charly said slowly. "But I'm not sure if we could send her and another to the true time line."

Anakin closed his eyes and searched the Force for answers.

He saw Ahsoka and Rex arriving in the true time line but he also saw them ending up in this time line.

"I see it ending both wa-perhaps she wi-for them." Anakin said blinking to rid himself of the red haze.

Obi-Wan frowned.

_Don't give in Luke!_

_Wait where did all of that come from?_

Obi-Wan quickly shook his head.

"Anakin, are you alright?" he asked.

Anakin smiled.

"I'm fine." He responded.

And then he collapsed.

"Anakin!" Padmé nearly screamed.

She knelt next to him and tried to shake him but her hands past straight through him.

"Anakin please wake up!" She cried.

Luke crouched over the still form of his father.

The first thing he noticed was that his breathing was strained, the second was the lack of any distress.

"We need to open the portal, his problems should disappear upon opening." Charly said walking towards the device.

Leia watched as Charly inserted a blood stained object into a panel and then pressed a sequence of buttons.

She felt a surge in the Force as the three rings began revolve around each other.

A sudden explosion of light erupted from the center, it settled to a pool of something that resembled water. Images flickered across it.

Luke standing near a narrow catwalk with Vader on the deck behind him.

Leia, with long hair, running with a group of men, with Han in the rear running from a bunker.

Two fleets battling each other.

Children at play.

Families having dinner together.

"Did it do this last time?" Jada asked curious.

"No it did not." Charly answered.

A scream of pain tore their eyes away from the sight.

Anakin lurched unsteadily to his feet and was swaying. Blood staining his pant legs.

_Something isn't right. _Obi-Wan thought.

Then it clicked: Anakin was now taller than he had been a few minutes ago.

"He's going to kill Luke!" He blurted out. "He's going to kill him!"

"Anakin, no one is trying to kill Luke." Obi-Wan said gently.

Anakin stared at him.

"You're dead! I-I saw you die!" Anakin said sounding distressed

Obi-Wan froze.

_That's right, I am dead. Vader killed me._

"Act now we must." Yoda said.

"Send Needa, Rex and Ahsoka we should. Blocks place on their memories we will. Remember they cannot." Yoda continued.

"I will place the blocks Master, they will fail at my death." Anakin volunteered.

Yoda nodded.

"Captain Needa needs his memories long enough to stop Lady Jerrison." Mace said.

Anakin nodded.

"It will be like a Blast Door, ready to close off his memories Masters." Anakin said.

Anakin turned to Needa.

"Will you allow me entrance into your mind?" he asked.

Needa nodded.

Anakin closed his eyes and Needa felt someone in his mind. He could feel a door being constructed.

"Are you sure that it will close after the deed is done?" he asked.

"If it doesn't inject some of this into your system." Charly handed him a syringe filled with a clear liquid. "It will fog your memories and after a time you will forget if there's nothing to remind you of this time. I tested it myself." She explained.

Needa took it hesitantly.

"Inject some of it into me as well and destroy the recording." She said.

Anakin then turned to Rex.

"Do what you must sir." Rex said. "And just so you know I would never betray you."

Anakin smiled.

"I know that you would never betray me Rex." he answered.

Ahsoka looked uneasy.

"What if it fails Master?" she asked.

"Then live the life that you are beginning to remember." Anakin answered

"You all must step through at the same time to travel to the same time period.

**Interesting, even though dark things are going to come to pass you rather live it than die.**

Anakin frowned at hearing Vader's voice.

_I have been thinking._

**About what?**

_Who were you before you turned to the Dark Side?_

**You haven't guessed?**

**Surely you suspect?**

_I suspect no one. _Anakin thought.

**Do you know that for three years Luke believed that I killed you?**

_No I did not know that. But I wouldn't be surprised if I am dead because I am gone._

**You're not dead. You no longer exist.**

_I don't understand._ Anakin thought.

**Soon we will be dead.**

_I will fight you the whole way!_

**We're dying from Respiratory Failure.**

_What do you mean by 'we'?_

**Sometime ago you asked me who I was; I am you.**

Anakin felt the blood drain from his face. But it all made perfect sense.

**Do not worry, it turned out that I was able to return to the Light.**

Anakin pulled down his breath mask, pulled Padmé close and kissed her.

"Hurry you must!" Yoda said

Anakin watched dimly as Needa, Ahsoka, Daine and Rex walked up to the portal and walked through.


	18. The Beginning in the End

_Coruscant 19 BBY . . ._

Charly carefully piloted her speeder towards the Chancellor's office.

_Almost there._

Then a ghost appeared from a nearby speeder.

She gasped at the sight of Lorth Needa, a much younger Lorth Needa.

"Charly, don't do it." He said.

Charly hesitated.

_What's he doing here?_

Charly's heart pounded in her chest.

She watched as Needa piloted his speeder closer.

She was so focused on him that she didn't see him pull out a syringe until it was too late.

Charly Deacon opened her eyes and frowned.

She was in her speeder headed for a restricted air zone.

_How did I get here?_ She wondered.

Vague memories flickered in her mind's eyes but none of them made sense and they were fading.

She shook her head and headed back to her apartment.

Lorth Needa watched as she drove away before he emptied the remains of the serum into his veins.

Ahsoka awoke on the world of Myrkr.

Carefully she got to her feet and brushed herself off.

_I think I had a dream but I can't remember what it was about._

Captain Rex paused for a moment and glanced around,

_I could have sworn that I was somewhere else for a moment._ He thought.

Daine Jir blinked for a moment.

"Daine, when do you think this war is going to end?" His bunk mate Harrison Fjord asked.

Daine shook his head.

"I don't know, soon hopefully." He answered.

_4 ABY en route to Endor . . ._

Ahsoka Sci-Fi sat in the pilot's chair of the _Rekindled Dream._

_I'm coming Master! _She thought.

"Mom, where are we going?" Asha asked.

Ahsoka was about to check the nav computer when_ to her_ horror her Master's presence winked out.

"NO!" She screamed.

She fell sobbing to the floor.

"Mom?" Asha asked softly.

"He's dead. My Master is dead." Ahsoka wailed.

Abruptly Ahsoka felt something loosen in her mind.

She saw her ship barren of her children, her Master in poor health, a hole in Coruscant's cityscape, a man claiming that a woman changed the past and a portal.

_Master blocked my memories of that life because I remembered parts of my old life. I had to live a normal as possible life._

_I have to contact Charly Jerrison._

Charly Jerrison rocked back and forth in her chair.

_Mik's gone._ She thought.

The comm station chirped.

"Dayvyd, could you answer it." she asked her son.

She watched as Dayvyd made his way across the room to the comm station and answered the call.

"Jerrison residence." He said in a clear voice.

"You must be Dayvyd." A woman's voice said.

_Maybe I could travel back in time and-_

"Mom, there's a lady that wants to speak to you!" Dayvyd called.

Charly rose from her chair and made her way across the room to the comm station. Her heart pounded in her throat.

"Yes?" she asked as she slid into the seat in front of comm station.

She stared curiously at the unfamiliar togruta woman and four young togruta.

"Charly, you can't go through with it." The woman said.

Charly frowned.

"How do I know my name?" She asked.

"You traveled to the past and stopped an event from taking place and it changed everything. My Instructor is going to go from healthy to nearly dead in a year's time.

"My children . . ." the woman swallowed. "My children were never born."

Charly looked at her son then her two daughters.

"Please let me and countless other people keep their children." The woman pleaded.

Charly felt her resolve crumble.

_Can I deny her her children? No I cannot._

Ahsoka felt the the Force shift and she felt her memories of the other time line fade.

"Thank you!" She whispered before cutting the connection.

Finish

Thank you for reading.

At a future date I might chose to rewrite it, vamp it up you know.


End file.
